Kim Il Sung, Works, vol. 19 (January-October 1965), incl. Lecture at the 'Ali Archam' Academy, Jakarta, 14 April 1965

=== [PDF page 1] === [Cover:] KIM IL SUNG WORKS === [PDF page 2] === WORKING PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE WORLD, UNITE! === [PDF page 3] === KIM IL SUNG WORKS 19 January–October 1965 FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE PYONGYANG, KOREA 1984 === [PDF page 4] === CONTENTS NEW YEAR ADDRESS January 1, 1965......................................................................................................................1 LET US ELIMINATE BUREAUCRACY IN STATE AND ECONOMIC ORGANS AND IMPROVE THE PARTY, CLASS AND POPULAR SPIRIT OF OFFICIALS Speech at the General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries, January 3, 1965..................................................................................................13 REPLY TO A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE KOREAN AFFAIRS INSTITUTE IN WASHINGTON January 8, 1965....................................................................................................................34 ON IMPROVING THE METHOD OF GUIDANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF FACTORIES AND ENTERPRISES Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee of the Hwanghae Iron Works, January 11 and 16, 1965.....................................................44 1. On Improving the Method of Guidance of Factories and Enterprises.............................44 2. On Successfully Fulfilling the National Economic Plan for 1965 and the Seven-Year Plan....................................................................................55 1) On Applying the Mass Line in Planning.......................................................................56 2) On Implementing the Party’s Policy of Carrying Out Large-scale Production and Medium and Small-scale Production in Parallel................................62 3) On Promoting the Technical Revolution......................................................................66 4) On Intensifying Political Work among the Working People........................................71 5) On Improving Supply Services.....................................................................................76 === [PDF page 5] === ON BRINGING ABOUT INNOVATIONS IN IRON ORE PRODUCTION Speech at the Party Committee Meeting of the Unnyul Mine, January 22, 1965........................................................................................................80 ON TEMPERING THE PARTY SPIRIT OF FOREIGN TRADE WORKERS AND STRICTLY ADHERING TO INDEPENDENCE IN FOREIGN TRADE Concluding Speech at a General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, January 28, 1965..........................................................101 TO ATTAIN THE STEEL PRODUCTION GOAL OF THE SEVEN-YEAR PLAN Speech Delivered at an Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee of the Kangson Steel Plant, January 30, 1965...................................................................118 SOME OPINIONS RELATING TO THE CREATION OF THE FEATURE FILM THE PATH TO AWAKENING Talk with Film Workers after Viewing the First Copy of the Feature Film The Path to Awakening (Part 1), January 31, 1965..................................................137 FERTILIZER IMMEDIATELY MEANS RICE AND RICE, SOCIALISM Concluding Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee of the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory, February 9, 1965....................................143 ON IMPROVING HIGHER EDUCATION Speech at the General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the Ministry of Higher Education, February 23, 1965...........................................................................162 1. On Working-classizing and Revolutionizing Intellectuals............................................162 2. On Firmly Establishing Juche in Education and Scientific Research............................173 3. On Improving the Training of Cadres............................................................................184 ON IMPROVING GUIDANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION TO SUIT NEW CIRCUMSTANCES === [PDF page 6] === Speech at a General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the State Construction Commission, March 26, 1965......................................................................194 1. On the Principal Shortcomings Revealed in the Construction Sector...........................195 2. On Strengthening the Ranks of State Construction Commission Officials Politically and Ideologically and Training Them Technically and Practically.................................................................................199 3. On Revising the Structure of the State Construction Commission and Improving the Officials’ Methods and Style of Work in Conformity with New Circumstances.......................................................................208 4. On Improving Construction Planning............................................................................217 5. On Giving Effective Technical Guidance to Major Construction Projects...................226 6. On Accelerating the Mechanization of Construction Work..........................................229 ON SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION IN THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA AND THE SOUTH KOREAN REVOLUTION Lecture at the “Ali Archam” Academy of Social Sciences of Indonesia, April 14, 1965...............................................................................................236 1. On the Course of Progress of Socialist Construction in the Northern Half of Korea.................................................................................................................238 2. On the Establishment of the Socialist System................................................................245 3. On the Economic Construction of Socialism.................................................................250 4. On the Questions of Establishing Juche Firmly and of Implementing the Mass Line.................................................................................................................261 5. On the South Korean Revolution...................................................................................272 ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY IWAMOTO KIYOSHI, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE KYODO PRESS OF JAPAN April 19, 1965.....................................................................................................................285 ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY SAKAI TATSUO AND FUSE MICHIO, CORRESPONDENTS OF THE NIHON KEIZAI SHIMBUN April 19, 1965.....................................................................................................................291 === [PDF page 7] === ON SOME QUESTIONS ON IMPROVING THE WORK OF STATE AND ECONOMIC ORGANS AT PRESENT Speech Addressed to the Leading Personnel of Party and Government Organs and the Deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly, May 25, 1965...................293 1. On Further Raising the Role of Local Government Organs..........................................293 2. On Showing Deep Concern for the People’s Living Conditions...................................298 3. On Preventing Accidents................................................................................................304 4. On Improving Land Management..................................................................................307 5. On Managing the Economic Life of the Country Well..................................................311 6. On Actively Ensuring Women’s Involvement in Society..............................................314 7. On Eliminating Subjectivism.........................................................................................317 8. On Successfully Implementing the Seven-Year Plan....................................................323 CONCLUDING SPEECH AT THE 11TH PLENARY MEETING OF THE FOURTH CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORKERS’ PARTY OF KOREA July 1, 1965.........................................................................................................................327 1. On Improving the Control of Heat and Electric Power.................................................327 2. On Improving Higher Education and Scientific Research Work...................................335 ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY GABRIEL MOLINA, DIRECTOR OF THE PRESS DEPARTMENT OF THE HOY, AND OTHER CUBAN JOURNALISTS July 6, 1965.........................................................................................................................349 SPEECH AT THE BANQUET TO CELEBRATE THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AUGUST 15 LIBERATION August 15, 1965..................................................................................................................360 ON SOME TASKS CONFRONTING THE WOMEN’S UNION ORGANIZATIONS Speech Delivered at the Third Congress of the Korean Democratic Women’s Union, September 2, 1965..............................................................365 === [PDF page 8] === ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY SAAD EL TAYEH, FOREIGN NEWS EDITOR OF AL AKHBAR, KAMAL AMER, FOREIGN NEWS EDITOR OF MEN, AND OTHER JOURNALISTS OF THE UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC September 13, 1965............................................................................................................375 TO GIVE FULL PLAY TO THE GREAT VITALITY OF THE UNIFIED AND DETAILED PLANNING OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY Speech Delivered at a General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the State Planning Commission, September 23, 1965...................................................382 1. On Putting Unified and Detailed Planning into Practice...............................................382 2. On Firmly Building Up the Planning Bodies and Raising the Party Spirit, Class Spirit and Popular Spirit of Planning Workers....................................................404 3. On the Orientation for Drawing Up the National Economic Plan for Next Year........................................................................................409 ON THE OCCASION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WORKERS’ PARTY OF KOREA Report Delivered at the Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, October 10, 1965............................................................419 1...........................................................................................................................................421 2...........................................................................................................................................426 3...........................................................................................................................................431 4...........................................................................................................................................441 5...........................................................................................................................................447 6...........................................................................................................................................451 === [PDF page 9] === NEW YEAR ADDRESS January 1, 1965 Dear comrades, Today our people greet the new year of 1965 with greater hope, encouragement and conviction, looking back upon their proud achievements in 1964. On behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the Republic, I should like to offer my warm congratulations on, and greetings for, the New Year to you comrades and all our compatriots, brothers and sisters. Last year our working people achieved significant victories on all fronts of socialist construction under the leadership of the Party. Thanks to the devoted efforts of the heroic working class, cooperative farmers and all other working people our national economy rapidly developed without interruption. Industrial production grew at a high rate, the material and technical foundations of industry became firmer and its technical equipment was further increased. The large Kanggye Youth Power Station started operation, the construction of the Sinuiju Chemical Fibre Mill was energetically stepped up and the Sindo tideland reclamation project, designed to supply the mill with raw materials, was successfully completed. The seamless steel pipe shop of the Kangson Steel Plant, the blooming and chemical shops of the Hwanghae Iron Works, a factory for synthesizing ammonia by the gasification of anthracite and other new === [PDF page 10] === factories and shops equipped with modern technology were completed and so were able to start operation. In addition to these, the Pyongyang Thermal Power Plant, the Unbong Power Station and chemical fertilizer factories are successfully being constructed. In the mining industry the material and technical foundations of large-scale coal and ore mines were further strengthened and quite a few new medium- and small-scale mines were developed. The machine-building industry, the hard core of heavy industry, made further progress. The existing machinery factories were re-equipped and expanded and so their production capacities increased, and new factories were built. As a result, much more machinery and equipment could be produced for various sectors of the national economy. Accordingly, our heavy industry is today showing its greatly increasing strength as the basis of the independent national economy and it is forging ahead with the overall technical reconstruction of the national economy. Last year the railway-line between Pyongyang and Sinuiju was completely electrified in a short time thanks to the forceful assistance of heavy industry and the heroic efforts of young builders. This is an epoch-making event in the development of our country’s transport. Our working people achieved signal success also in their endeavours to implement the Party’s policy of introducing improvements in the production of consumer goods. Light industry factories under the central authority were further renovated and expanded, the technical equipment of locally-run factories was augmented considerably and consumer goods shops were established in many heavy industry factories. Because of this, the production of such items increased rapidly, their varieties were extended and their quality was improved still further. Last year saw great progress in bringing into effect the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country in the agricultural sector. The large-scale Amnokgang and Singye irrigation projects, the embankment projects of the Chongchon and Sunhwa Rivers and many === [PDF page 11] === other irrigation projects as well as afforestation and water conservancy works were carried out, with the result that 60,000 additional hectares of paddy fields were brought under cultivation and our agriculture will be better protected from drought and flood damage. In the countryside farming techniques in general were further developed and big successes were achieved particularly in introducing two-crop cultivation. We have already passed the experimental stage in the introduction of the two-cropping system and have laid a solid foundation to expand the area on which it is practiced to hundreds of thousands of hectares. In spite of the damage caused to several hundred thousand tons of crops by a typhoon last year, we maintained the 1963 level of grain production. This clearly proves the validity of our Party’s agricultural policy and the stability of our country’s agricultural production base. In accordance with the spirit of the theses on the rural question the Party and the state gave continuous and effective assistance to the rural areas and provided cooperative farms and their members with great benefits. By the end of last year the number of those exempted from the tax in kind was about half of all the cooperative farms. And the state completely released them from paying the construction costs of modern houses already built for them and also from their state loans. It provided them with a large number and variety of new production facilities and modern houses out of its own funds. As can be seen, socialist rural construction in our country is being successfully carried out by the powerful assistance of the state and the devoted endeavours of the farmers. Great progress was also made in other sectors, including science, education, culture and public health, and the material and cultural standards of our people were raised still more. In the past year our Party and people accomplished a great deal of work for the continued prosperity of their socialist country. Under the seasoned leadership of the Party our people are gaining new victories every year and accomplishing greater feats in socialist construction. So, as time advances and the years change, the political, economic and military strength of our Republic is being increased, our towns and === [PDF page 12] === villages are being made more beautiful and the living conditions of the people are improving. All these afford clear proof of the superiority of the socialist system established in the northern half of Korea and the invincible vitality of our Party’s policy. Today our people are firmly united around the Party and are marching briskly towards a greater victory along the road indicated by the Party. In the name of the Party and the Government I extend my warm congratulations and thanks to our workers, farmers, scientists, technicians, educationists, health workers, writers, artists and all other working people who performed exemplary services on all fronts of socialist construction. Let me also express my warm congratulations and thanks to the valiant officers and men of the People’s Army and the men of the Security Forces, the public security personnel and the Worker-Peasant Red Guardsmen who are steadfastly guarding the defences of the country and loyally safeguarding the happy life of our people. Comrades, On this new year morning the people in the northern half of Korea who look ahead, filled with optimism, to a more splendid future for the country are thinking of our brothers and sisters in the southern half with warm hearts. Our compatriots in the south are greeting the New Year under unbearable national suppression and difficult living conditions. Firmly set against brutal enemy repression, the people in the south are fighting as valiantly as ever against the US imperialist aggressors and their stooges. Everywhere in that part of the country workers are holding strikes, the broad masses of peasants have come out against the oppression and plunder of the US imperialists, the landlords and the reactionary bureaucrats, and the young people, students and intellectuals are fighting for democratic freedom and for their rights. Desire for the country’s reunification is mounting among the people of all social levels in south Korea. In particular, the heroic resistance struggle of south Korean youths and students which took place last === [PDF page 13] === June demonstrated the revolutionary stamina of the resourceful and courageous young people of Korea and dealt another heavy blow at the US imperialists and their stooges. The noble exploits of the south Korean revolutionaries and patriotic youths in their sacred struggle for the freedom and liberation of the people and the reunification and independence of the homeland will go down in the glorious revolutionary annals of our country. Workers, peasants, young people and students, intellectuals, patriotic entrepreneurs and tradesmen in south Korea should firmly unite under the banner of the anti-US, save-the-nation struggle and continue to gather and strengthen the revolutionary forces. In this way they should oppose the aggression of US imperialism and the traitorous policy of the south Korean puppet clique as well as the new invasion of Japanese militarism, and fight more bravely for peaceful national reunification. The people in the northern half of Korea will always be on the side of the south Korean people and will make every possible effort to support and encourage them in their struggle. By virtue of their united strength all the north and south Korean people will in the end drive the US imperialists out of south Korea and assuredly achieve the cause of national reunification. I would like to send, on behalf of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the Government of the Republic and all the people in the north, warm fraternal encouragement and greetings to our compatriots and revolutionaries in the south who are fighting bravely against the US imperialist aggressors and their henchmen, and wish them greater victories in their struggle in the new year. I also extend, on behalf of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the Republic, New Year congratulations and greetings to our 600,000 compatriots in Japan and all Koreans abroad. We wish the Korean nationals in Japan greater success in their struggle to obtain their democratic, national rights, for the freedom to travel to their homeland and for the peaceful reunification of the country under the guidance of the Chongryon. === [PDF page 14] === Today the general international situation favours the revolutionary cause of the Korean people and the struggle of progressive people for peace and democracy, national independence and socialism. Socialist forces the world over have become stronger and the anti-imperialist, national-liberation struggle of the peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America has achieved new triumphs. The revolutionary struggle of the broad masses of people led by the working class is steadily developing in capitalist countries. The aggressive forces of US-led imperialism are being isolated still more from the people around the world. The imperialists are making every possible desperate effort to save themselves from ruin, but the more desperate they become, the fiercer the anti-imperialist struggle of the people will grow. Last year our Party and people also made significant progress in international relations and contributed positively to the common cause of progressive people the world over. We waged a principled struggle for the victory of Marxism-Leninism, the unity of the socialist camp and the solidarity of the international communist movement; we supported and encouraged in every way the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial campaign of the Asian, African and Latin-American peoples and the revolutionary endeavours of the working class and other working people in capitalist countries, and we resolutely fought against the US-led imperialists’ policy of aggression and war and for the defence of peace in Asia and the rest of the world. In consequence, the international position of our country has been enhanced and our foreign relations further expanded. More and more countries and peoples are supporting our just cause. Particularly through the Asian Economic Seminar held in Pyongyang and the bilateral visits of many government delegations and economic and cultural delegations, friendship and cooperation have further strengthened and developed between our country and various countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The foreign policies pursued by our Party and the Government of the Republic are independent and honest, and, therefore, correct. === [PDF page 15] === In future we shall also fight with determination to oppose revisionism and dogmatism, defend the purity of Marxism-Leninism and safeguard the unity of the socialist camp and the cohesion of the international communist movement. Our people will fight more stubbornly for peace and democracy, national independence and socialism in unity with the peoples of socialist countries, the international working class, the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America and the peace-loving people the world over. In the name of all the Korean people I would like to extend my good wishes and New Year greetings to the peoples of the fraternal socialist countries and wish them greater successes in their struggle for peace and socialism. Allow me to offer my warm congratulations and support to the South Vietnamese and Congolese peoples who are courageously resisting the aggression of the US imperialists and their stooges and who are fighting for freedom and independence as well as to the peoples of all Asian, African and Latin-American countries who are taking part in the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial struggle. I also express my warm congratulations to you, the government delegation of the Republic of the Congo (B), the medical delegation of the Scientists’ Council of Indonesia, and the delegation of the State Broadcasting Station of the Republic of Guinea, who are celebrating the New Year here with us. Dear comrades, Our people who are greeting the New Year are faced with further enormous tasks of socialist construction. This year marks the fifth year in our implementation of the Seven-Year Plan. The Fourth Congress of our Party directed that during the first half of the Seven-Year Plan efforts should be concentrated on the rapid development of light industry and the rural economy and the raising of the people’s standard of living to a measurable degree through readjusting and strengthening the existing bases of heavy industry and making effective use of them. It also directed that during the second half priority should be given to the determined strengthening of the === [PDF page 16] === material and technical foundations of socialism by increased expansion of our heavy industry and improvements in its technical equipment while, at the same time, raising the people’s standard of living still further. In the past four years we have already gone a long way towards accomplishing the tasks of the first half of this plan, and from this year we have to work hard to carry out the tasks of the second half. It is true that, contrary to our calculations, the economic development of our country has been delayed to some extent because we had to direct greater effort to the reinforcement of our defence capabilities during the past two or three years in the light of the prevailing situation. However, from now on we must concentrate on heavy industry, develop all sectors of the national economy more rapidly and so fulfil the Seven-Year Plan at all costs. In order to reach the targets in pig iron and steel, the most important thing is to develop the ferrous metal industry quickly. This year we should step up the renovation and expansion of the existing blast furnaces, make active preparations for building furnace No. 3 in the Hwanghae Iron Works and, at the same time, further strengthen the bases of steel production. While doing this we should also improve the technical equipment in all iron works and steel plants and introduce advanced technical processes and production methods on a wide scale so as to increase production sharply, extend the types and standards of steel produced and improve their quality. The chemical industry should concentrate its efforts on attaining the production target for chemical fertilizers envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan. The construction and expansion projects in respect of the Aoji Urea Fertilizer Factory and other chemical factories now under way should be speeded up so that they can be quickly completed. One of the prerequisites for the rapid development of the national economy as a whole is the determined strengthening of the country’s fuel-power base. This is why we should try even harder to hit production targets of electricity and coal. We must quickly complete the construction of the Pyongyang Thermal Power Plant and the === [PDF page 17] === Unbong Power Station and build a large number of medium- and small-sized installations. The coal industry should augment the technical equipment at large coal mines, increase their production capacities and, at the same time, open up medium-sized and small coal mines on a large scale. We should continue to make every effort for the development of mining so as to keep the mining industry, the first process of production, ahead. We should make certain that iron ore mines are expanded, that a greater number of new nonferrous metal mines are opened up, and that many medium- and small-sized mines particularly, in addition to large ones, are developed. We should step up the construction of new ore-dressing facilities including the plant at Tanchon and we must speed up technical reconstruction at all mines. By doing so we should bring about a rapid increase in the production of various minerals including iron, copper, lead and zinc, so that we may satisfy the demand of the national economy. The main task facing the light industry sector is to diversify the types of goods produced and to improve their quality drastically. Although great progress has been made in this sector in recent years, it is still far below the level required by the Party. We should make every effort to develop science and technology, raise the proficiency of workers and meet the requirements for raw and other materials so that there can be new changes within the next year or two in our efforts to expand the variety of consumer goods and improve their quality. By doing this we should be able to produce larger quantities of various consumer goods of high quality which will meet the needs and tastes of the people. All daily necessities we produce should be fine, durable and attractive and all foodstuffs should be clean and tasty. The development of agriculture is still an important task facing us. We should concentrate on the effort to attain the goal of grain production, while at the same time continuing to develop all sectors of the rural economy, including livestock farming. We should make the best use of the existing irrigation facilities and === [PDF page 18] === exercise better control of water so as to expand the area under rice cultivation. We should also pay special attention to the widespread introduction of two-crop farming. We must plant fodder-crops extensively as the first crop in paddy fields and widely introduce two cropping of grains in dry fields. As was pointed out in the theses on the rural question, mechanization, electrification and the application of chemicals, along with irrigation, are essential for the rural technical revolution. The state will supply more chemical fertilizers to the country areas as the chemical industry develops. In particular, lands should be put into good condition and our efforts to accelerate the mechanization of agriculture must be redoubled. The number of tractors will have to be increased and their repair bases expanded so that their usefulness and that of trailer-type farm machinery can be very greatly increased. We should strengthen the material and technical foundations of the rural economy and, on this basis, continue to develop advanced intensive farming methods. We will have to revise the distribution of crop areas, improve seed production and ensure that all farming operations from ploughing and sowing to harvesting are done properly and at the right time, thereby increasing per-unit-area yields. In this way we should not only fulfil the tasks of the rural economy envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan but also successfully accomplish the important tasks of building the socialist countryside as set out in the theses. The most important thing in the field of capital construction is to concentrate construction on a priority basis, instead of dispersing investments. We should concentrate capital investments and the building force in industrial construction which will help to reach the main goals of the Seven-Year Plan and continue with the extensive construction of housing. The Seven-Year Plan is a plan for the comprehensive technical revolution. Without developing technology we cannot carry out the huge tasks of the plan nor can we achieve further advances in our 10 === [PDF page 19] === national economy. An energetic movement to promote technical innovations should be launched in all sectors, irrespective of whether they be centrally-controlled or locally-run industries, agriculture, construction or transport. New techniques must be boldly and widely accepted, existing machinery, equipment and technical processes must be constantly revised, and the use of equipment must be increased in every way. Every possibility of furthering technical progress, from the simple improvement of existing technical processes to semi- and full-mechanization and automation, which will save labour, ease the burden of the workers and increase production, must be turned to good account. In order to develop techniques, economic cadres, scientists, technicians, workers and farmers should all show wisdom and creativeness and work together. Technicians in particular should be properly distributed and provided with suitable working conditions so that they will all play a full part in the technical revolution. With a view to developing the national economy rapidly and solving the manpower shortage problem satisfactorily, we must organize labour administration properly as well as strengthening the drive for technical innovation. We should allocate the labour force on a rational basis, improve the organization of labour and increase the technical expertise of the working people in every possible way. In so doing we should be able to boost the output value per man in all sectors and save labour in the existing factories and enterprises so as to ensure a smooth supply of the necessary manpower to new factories and enterprises. Tense battles call for able direction on the part of commanding officers. It is one of the most important tasks devolving on us today to raise the guidance level of the central economic leadership organs considerably and improve the management of enterprises. The Taean work system and the Chongsanri method should be applied thoroughly in all departments and at all units. We should see to it that the mass line of the Party is completely integrated into economic management–a line of giving priority to political work, carrying out the given tasks through the mobilization of cadres and the masses, and giving 11 === [PDF page 20] === substantial help to subordinate units on the spot. Meanwhile, the habit of studying should be established more rigorously amongst cadres and the working people. Everyone should make it a daily routine to persevere with their political, economic and technical studies. Communist education of the workers should be carried out more zealously in combination with their education in revolutionary traditions. In this way we should guide and manage the national economy with ability, bring about greater progress in socialist construction by giving full scope to the creative power and talents of the working people and press forward in the spirit of Chollima riders. Our country still remains divided and we are directly confronted by US imperialism, the ringleader of world reaction. We have a grave revolutionary responsibility to help the people in the south liberate south Korea and reunify the country. We should not allow ourselves to become in the least bit complacent nor follow an idle or relaxed course of life. Our lives and work should always follow a revolutionary course, because we are fighting for the revolution. We should establish the revolutionary habits of work and life in all fields more firmly. We must build up the Party ranks, unite all the working people solidly behind the Party, speed up socialist economic construction and continue to maintain our attitude of country-wide defence, so making our revolutionary base more secure politically, economically and militarily. The whole Party and all the people should unite firmly and fight bravely so that 1965 will be a year of definite progress in the fulfilment of the tasks for the second half of the Seven-Year Plan, a year which will continue to strengthen the might of our socialist country and brighten the glory of Chollima Korea. I am convinced that under the leadership of the Party our people will advance vigorously holding high the banner of self-reliance and thereby win a new, great victory both in the revolutionary struggle and in construction. 12 === [PDF page 21] === LET US ELIMINATE BUREAUCRACY IN STATE AND ECONOMIC ORGANS AND IMPROVE THE PARTY, CLASS AND POPULAR SPIRIT OF OFFICIALS Speech at the General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries January 3, 1965 Comrades, On the authority of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee, I have spent two days attending the meetings of cells under the Party Committee of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries and a further two days at the general membership meeting of the ministry Party organization. Now I should like to speak about what I have felt at this meeting and about some of my suggestions for improving the work of the ministry. This meeting showed that the ministry has serious shortcomings in its guidance of the economy and that it cannot carry its work forward without ironing them out. It also clearly proved that the concluding speech and decision of the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee which defined the main cause of these shortcomings as a dearth of Party, class and popular spirit on the part of the minister, vice-ministers, the general bureau directors and other senior officials of the ministry, were quite correct. In the past the minister, vice-ministers, the general bureau directors 13 === [PDF page 22] === and deputy directors, the management bureau directors and other senior officials failed to carry out Party policies conscientiously and to work like masters who are to be responsible for the nation’s economic life. The ministry still retains a great deal of bureaucracy and formalism in its work and deals with all problems in an outdated way. The minister, vice-ministers and other cadres only pay lip service to supporting the Party and implementing its policies but, in practice, they set the Party, class and the people at naught. These people try to solve every problem by relying on several petty-bourgeois intellectuals and not in accordance with the Party’s policies. The ministry cadres who have accustomed themselves to looking down at the masses, are utterly indifferent to the people’s lives. While working in warm offices, they pay no heed to their subordinates shivering in cold offices. They have not yet built a nursery, a matter which was raised by women several years ago. It has been said that the chief engineer of the General Bureau of Mining Industry returned home alone by car, leaving his subordinates in the office, in spite of the fact that it was raining, after making them work until late at night. The state provided him with the car for work, not for comfort. It is morally right that he should give his comrades a lift to their homes, after they had worked together until late at night. It is said that when they visit enterprises the minister, vice-ministers and bureau directors demand to be treated well, but that when they summon the enterprise officials to the ministry they do not meet them for several days nor help them find lodgings. So, many of them spend their nights sleeping on the tables in the ministry before returning home. I want to ask those who treat their subordinates in this way whether they have any humanity, to say nothing of comradeship. The ministry cadres do not pay respect to the Party organization and take no active part in Party life. They consider Party control a nuisance. As a result, they do not attend Party meetings and study sessions properly nor do they report their work to the Party organization. I am told that some leading personnel argue against those Party members who report their work results to the Party organization. This 14 === [PDF page 23] === is quite wrong. Every Party member is bound to report his work to the higher Party organization but has no right to reprove others for making their reports. If one thinks that a certain Party member informed the Party organization of something incorrectly, one might put forward one’s opinions so that the Party is able to form a correct judgement. But these people do not report to the Party organization but take their subordinates to task for their reporting without telling them. In the final analysis, this is tantamount to deceiving the Party and preventing it from understanding all aspects of their work. In short, some of the senior officials of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries are becoming bureaucrats. The work method of bureaucrats is fundamentally different from our Party’s. The Party requires that bureaucracy be eliminated and that the Taean system and the Chongsanri method be introduced in economic guidance, but the ministry cadres still fail to eradicate bureaucracy. Since their work method runs counter to the Taean system, efforts to apply a new system of management in subordinate bodies are futile. Many cadres of the ministry accepted in a very perfunctory way the Party’s policy of introducing the Taean system. Some of them plainly opposed it, claiming that it was unsuitable for the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries and that it was practicable only for factories but not for ministries. Thus the ministry cadres could not keep pace with the masses in their struggle against the old patterns and old methods, nor could they make proper use of their great enthusiasm. Accordingly, production has failed to increase, the technical revolution has made no progress and labour administration has revealed serious defects over the past few years. These shortcomings were fully revealed in the several days of debate. We are to blame for not having corrected the defects in the ministry’s work a little earlier. If we had tackled the ministries soon after the guidance of the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant, striving to eliminate bureaucracy and apply the Taean system in the work of the ministry, the problem would have already been solved. We failed to do 15 === [PDF page 24] === so. This is because we had believed at that time that the ministry cadres would do a good job. It was wrong for the Party Central Committee to have had faith in them. The long and the short of it is that the old patterns and methods continued to be dominant in ministry work for two years. It is very good for the improvement of our work that we clearly came to know the shortcomings, even though somewhat belatedly. We should buckle down to rectifying them. In order to remedy these defects, it is important that we clearly ascertain their cause. The Party elucidated the policy of improving economic management and the masses are devoting themselves to carrying it through. However, the minister, vice-ministers and other leading workers fail to implement the Party’s policy faithfully, still work in a bureaucratic manner and behave without having the Party, class and popular spirit. It is necessary, therefore, to make a correct analysis of why such a practice still lingers. The first reason for these shortcomings is that the ministry Party committee and its organizations lack a revolutionary spirit and are quite powerless. It is already three to four years since our Party abolished the system of ministerial councils and set up the system of Party committees. The establishment of ministry Party committees was an organizational step to place the minister, vice-ministers and other cadres under the Party’s control. In the past, however, the Party Committee of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries and its organizations did not exercise proper Party control over the work of the ministry, nor did they carry out a principled campaign against those who neglected the implementation of Party policies. The reason why the Party organizations of the ministry failed to become militant and were impotent is that its Party committee consisted of cadres chosen for their positions, instead of those with a strong Party spirit. The ministry Party committee should be organized with the militant 16 === [PDF page 25] === Party members who have shown a strong Party spirit and determination to adhere to the Party lines in any adversity, irrespective of their position, whether a department director or instructor. But the Party Committee of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries included one or two ordinary members, and the rest were the vice-ministers, general bureau directors, chief engineers, branch Party committee chairmen and other cadres. Most of them have become bureaucratic. In addition, the ministry Party committee is formed mostly of those who have office-worker and intellectual origins and only partly of those of worker origin, who have worked in offices for a long time and so lack working-class training. Since the Party committee consisted mainly of cadres divorced from the masses, lower units were not informed of the questions discussed by the committee and the masses could not know that cadres were covering up their faults, nor could they express their opinions before the committee in time. Moreover, it was made up mostly of intellectuals, with the result that the committee could not apply strong criticism, nor openly criticize the cadres, even for their failure to carry out the Party’s policies. Another reason for the defects is that in the composition of ministry workers, the proportion of those of working-class origin was small, whereas those of intellectual and office-worker origins formed an absolute majority. As far as the present composition of ministry officials is concerned, those who have been promoted from among factory office workers or fresh university graduates make up an absolute majority. This is because the ministry cadres did not appoint those of working-class origin but intellectuals and office workers who know how to prepare documents, regarding the ministry simply as a business organ and not as a powerful executive organ of the Party’s economic policy. It is obvious that under these circumstances the militant spirit of the working class cannot be displayed nor can the revolutionary trait of defending and carrying through the Party’s policy be established. 17 === [PDF page 26] === Some of the office workers who have a petty-bourgeois intellectual’s mentality shrink from difficulties for lack of revolutionary spirit and rely, not on the masses, but on their conceit in solving any problems and they do not wish to oppose activities which are contrary to the Party’s policy. Furthermore, in the ministry those who devote themselves to the implementation of the Party’s policies have not been appointed, nor cadres selected by the Party committee, through collective discussion. But, in many cases, those who are in favour with the minister or bureau directors have been promoted in an unethical way. As a result, in the ministry flattery of superiors was rife, and officials did not oppose the errors of the minister, vice-ministers and bureau directors. At present the ministry is staffed with many intellectuals of working-class origin who were trained after liberation. Naturally, they should have reformed the old-time intellectuals who had a weak revolutionary and class spirit in the ministry and should have revolutionized and working-classized them. But, on the contrary, the new intellectuals have been influenced by the existing unhealthy atmosphere so as to become petty-bourgeois. The ministry must be staffed with a majority of people of working-class origin to working-classize and revolutionize all its officials, so that they can carry out principled opposition to all kinds of non-Party and non-class practices. However, this does not mean that all the existing intellectuals should be dismissed. There should be some intellectuals. In building up the ranks of cadres, those of working-class origin and intellectuals should be combined, but in any case the former should have supremacy. The Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries has so far failed to train and select cadres of working-class origin. Another reason for the shortcomings is that ministry officials did not establish the habit of criticism and self-criticism nor did they carry out a strong ideological campaign. Ministry Party organizations and their members must supervise the ministry cadres so that they can thoroughly study and implement Party 18 === [PDF page 27] === policy, and take an active part in Party life. But until now the ministry exerted no efforts to strengthen the Party spirit of its membership or to wage an ideological struggle against those who obstructed Party policy. The cadres of the ministry were left beyond the control of the Party and administration. As a matter of fact, the ministers are free from administrative control. They are not subject to any criticism, except for once a month when they participate in a Cabinet meeting and are criticized a little, if their shortcomings are known. In this way, the ministers and vice-ministers remained outside Party and administrative control and escaped any blame for their neglect of study and the Party’s policy, being in a special category. The result is that the ministers and other senior workers were so arrogant and impudent that they had their own way and their word was treated as law. Although the ministers, vice-ministers and general bureau directors amended the state plans decided upon at the Party plenary meetings and the Cabinet at will, nobody took them to task. Everybody knows that the undertaking of any project which is not a part of the plan runs counter to law and a minister or vice-minister has no right to approve it. But nobody opposed this practice. When assigned to a task of drawing up the plans for 24 enterprises by 13 people for 16 days, officials of the General Bureau of Mining Industry were well aware that it was contrary to Party policy and they were not allowed to draw up the plans as required by the Party. However, they advanced no suggestion under the pretext that they were acting upon the instructions of the bureau director and went out to the enterprises without even reporting to the ministry Party committee. How can we say this is the action of Party members? Since you work this way, the minister, vice-ministers and general bureau directors do as they will, considering you to be a fool, and figurehead. Everybody should think and act with the Party’s policy as a yardstick, and Party organizations should relentlessly oppose those who violate it. 19 === [PDF page 28] === Anyone who remains outside Party control can commit an error. Therefore, in order not to do so, the senior officials must endeavour to form ranks in a revolutionary manner, take the lead in being supervised by the Party organization and the masses, and establish a revolutionary atmosphere amongst them. Ours is a state for the people and by the working class. A revolutionary habit must be acquired in all state organs, and the officials of all enterprises should work in a revolutionary manner. The ministry was not organized in a revolutionary way and, accordingly, it became powerless. Take, for example, the problems of the nursery and the heating of offices raised at this meeting. The Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries has not yet settled the problem of the nursery after some years. It goes without saying that the blame rests with the minister and other cadres who are indifferent to the lives of their subordinates. If the ministry personnel had persistently applied themselves to solving this problem, they would not have neglected to build a nursery. The same is true of the heating problem. Quite apart from the ministry cadres, other officials are also to blame. If they were imbued with a revolutionary spirit, they would not have shivered with cold with folded arms but they would have rolled up their sleeves and laid new pipes and repaired a boiler, thereby solving the heating problem themselves. To be sure, the ministry lacks the fighting capacity of the working class and revolutionary stamina. It is shameful that a collective of hundreds of government workers including over 200 technicians did not repair the boiler but shivered with cold throughout the winter. To proceed. The economic departments of the Party Central Committee neglected their guidance and supervision over the work of the ministry and its Party committee. In the early part of January every year we gave concrete directions of Party work for the year to the heads and deputy heads of the departments and section chiefs of the Party Central Committee. In addition, starting a few years ago we laid special emphasis on the need for the Party’s economic departments to work among cadres and guide 20 === [PDF page 29] === the ministry Party committee. These departments, however, did not carry out these tasks satisfactorily. The ministry failed to control the cadres because its Party committee and the ranks of its employees were badly composed and no revolutionary criticism was applied. But, if the economic departments of the Party Central Committee had exercised Party control correctly, the cadres would not have degenerated to such an extent, nor would the work of the ministry be as deplorable as it is now. In the past the departments of the Party Central Committee neglected their guidance and control of the ministers and vice-ministers and, when they did exercise any control they only summoned these officials to the Party and warned them about their unpopularity. That is no way to purge them of their long-standing bourgeois and bureaucratic ideas. If ministers and vice-ministers had any shortcomings, the economic departments of the Party Central Committee should not have confined themselves to advising them in a petty and ineffective way, but should have corrected them in a revolutionary way by means of criticizing them at the general membership meeting of the ministry Party committee. There are no privileged and unprivileged people in the Party organization and whoever makes mistakes should be criticized. Had officials’ mistakes been publicly disclosed and criticized in good time, their bureaucracy and conceit would have been eradicated, and this would have also been a good lesson for others. However, the officials of these economic departments did not work this way. Since the Party Central Committee did not criticize them but worked in such a way as to beg them not to commit errors, the ministry cadres became so arrogant that they did what they wished as though they were cock of the walk, and their bureaucratic and bourgeois thinking and behaviours increased without restraint. This, generally speaking, is the impression I have been given at the general membership meeting of the Party organization of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries. If I look into the situation in other 21 === [PDF page 30] === ministries, things will become clearer, but I think the same is generally true of them. These serious shortcomings in the work of the ministry cannot be completely rectified by isolated criticism at this meeting. In order to rid the ministry of bureaucratic behaviour and correct the grave errors revealed among its cadres, which have been lacking in Party, class and popular spirit, it is important to make the ministry Party organization both vigorous and militant. The ministry Party committee must, first of all, be composed of those Party members who have strong Party spirit. Only the regular composition of this committee will help establish a discernible revolutionary atmosphere in the ministry. The committee should be established with the main emphasis on its members’ Party spirit, instead of on the positions which they hold; the cadres of working-class origin with strong Party spirit should make up more than 50 per cent of its membership. This is the way to make the ministry Party committee a revolutionary organization which is powerful enough to fight a principled struggle against those practices which are contrary to the Party’s policies. Next, the proportion of ministry workers who are of working-class origin should be increased to a large extent. Many people should be selected for these posts from amongst those who devoted themselves to the socialist revolution and construction, those who fought bravely in the Fatherland Liberation War and those who have had experience at production sites. Some people think that workers cannot be ministry officials but they are greatly mistaken. In fact, if old Party members who have had long experience in production, such as smelters, machinists, and miners are appointed and trained, they will become excellent ministry officials. Although their business ability may be lower than that of the graduates from technical colleges and universities, the cadres of working-class origin will be able to give more effective guidance on production sites. 22 === [PDF page 31] === There is no doubt that people who have been directly engaged in production have a better knowledge of it than those who are afraid to enter a mine shaft or who have only seen pictures of a blast furnace or a coke oven. As they have long experience in production, they are soon able to find out what is wrong with a mine or what the state of a blast furnace is and offer good advice to officials on the spot. We should combine the people of working-class and intellectual origin in the right proportions in the composition of cadres of the ministry and increase the proportion of the former so as to provide more effective direction to the economy and establish a revolutionary trait in the ministry. Furthermore, it is essential to intensify Party life in the ministry. We should incite Party members to pursue a healthy Party life after the ministry Party committee is properly constituted and the composition of the ministry is improved. There cannot be two kinds of discipline in Party life. Everybody must be faithful to the Party cell life. In addition, the ministry Party committee should give full scope to democracy in order to counter the lack of Party spirit and the violation of the Party’s policies. A Party meeting must always be political and revolutionary so that it can promote the Party spirit and carry through Party policies, but it must never be merely technical and business-like. You should not only discuss economic and technical matters at Party meetings but should criticize such practices as failing to carry out the Party’s policies. The study of Party policies must be further strengthened and this is obligatory for everyone. The minister and other senior officials must set an example to others in this. At the same time, a vigorous campaign must be instituted amongst technicians against a tendency to neglect the study of Party policies. It seems that some of them pay no attention to political study, recklessly claiming, contrary to Party spirit, that it is unnecessary for them to study Party policies or that it is of no use for technicians to study Marxism-Leninism. There is no room for such people in our Party. We 23 === [PDF page 32] === do not need technicians who dislike studying Party policies and Marxism-Leninism; in other words, the people whose bodies are in a socialist society but whose minds are in a capitalist one. The study of Party policies should be integrated with practical work. While studying you should discuss any failure in the Party policy and its cause, and examine yourselves, too. Only then will you be able to strengthen the Party spirit through Party study and carry out the Party’s policies more effectively. All officials–the minister, vice-ministers, bureau directors, technicians and office workers–should attend the Party study sessions sincerely, regarding them as a means of heightening Party spirit. To proceed, it is necessary to improve the role of the ministry Party committee chairman. He is, as it were, the Party’s plenipotentiary to the ministry; he has the duty and the right to control the Party political life of the minister and vice-ministers. In future, a system must be established so that the minister cannot issue an order without the consent of the Party chairman. This is necessary for some time to intensify Party control over the ministers who are weak in the Party spirit. As the role the ministry Party committee chairman has to play is a very important one, the Party Central Committee must appoint a qualified cadre to that post. This does not mean that his wages should be increased and a car be provided for him like the minister. He should not wield Party authority but carry out Party work conscientiously. He should always exercise supervision and control so as to know whether the orders of the minister coincide with Party policy or not. Meanwhile, the economic departments of the Party Central Committee should strengthen their control over ministries. These departments must strengthen their work among people, particularly among the cadres of ministries. The minister, vice-ministers and all the other ministry officials must be trained by the Party’s economic departments. These departments should always train these officials and supervise their implementation of the Party’s policies. 24 === [PDF page 33] === These departments should also frequently attend the general membership meetings of the ministry Party organization and its committee and Party cell meetings so that they are able to report the views of ministry workers to the Party Central Committee correctly and quickly. Next, the Secretariat of the Cabinet must enhance its role. As an advisory body to assist the Premier and First Vice-Premier, the Secretariat of the Cabinet has authority to supervise how the ministries carry out the Cabinet’s decisions for the implementation of Party policies. When ministry officials fail to carry out these decisions or orders, the Secretariat must reprove them for their failure, urge them to perform them, and report the results at the meetings of the Cabinet or its Presidium, and also to the relevant departments of the Party Central Committee. The whole Party has long fought against bureaucracy, but the senior officials of ministries still work bureaucratically. We have to strengthen the Party life of members in ministries, Party control by the economic departments of the Party Central Committee, and administrative control by the Secretariat of the Cabinet in order to eliminate bureaucracy amongst the ministerial cadres. The minister is a member of the Cabinet and occupies a very important position in the state. You should remember that under our system the minister is not a bureaucrat but a faithful servant of the people. Ministers should make continued effort to be good Party members with strong Party spirit who are resolute in their endeavours to carry out faithfully the duties entrusted to them by the Party and to defend and implement its policies. Now, I should like to refer to some problems arising in the work of the ministry. One of the most serious shortcomings in the work of the ministry is that plans are still being drawn up in a perfunctory manner. As I have already mentioned, in the General Bureau of Mining Industry last year 13 people visited 24 enterprises to draft their annual plans over a period of 16 days. It goes without saying that such plans 25 === [PDF page 34] === could not be satisfactory. Furthermore, enterprises themselves do not draft their own plans through full discussions with production workers. Drawing up an accurate plan is a most important thing in socialist economic construction. Under the socialist system all the country’s economic activities are conducted according to a unified state plan. That is why a clear-cut plan constitutes the first requisite for economic development. The ministry must regard planning as most important and involve a large number of people in it. Planning should be done under the direct charge of the minister, vice-ministers and bureau directors, and not only planning workers in the ministry but production guidance workers, technicians and supply workers should participate widely. It is advisable that more than half of the ministry’s workers should be involved in formulating the annual plan. Ministers and vice-ministers should each lead a group and visit factories to draft a realistic plan, after consultation with the factory Party committees and engaging many managerial workers and production innovators. Having completed their plans for the first half of the year, ministries should immediately set about drawing up the plans for the following year. They must formulate plans carefully, taking into account realistic conditions as regards equipment, capacities, manpower and workers’ technical expertise for a couple of months, and then submit them to the State Planning Commission within the third quarter of the year. This is the way to send up a comparatively well-compiled plan. The formulation of a plan should be followed by proper direction of production to carry it out. The most important factor in guiding production at enterprises is that the senior officials of ministries find out what are the actual conditions at all factories and enterprises. In just the same way, a military commander can engage in battle only when he knows exactly what the conditions are in his units. To be a successful military commander, he should know every detail about the ability of his units’ officers, the soldiers’ morale and fighting 26 === [PDF page 35] === capacity, their marksmanship, health conditions, weapons, and how many guns and bullets they have. At present, the ministry cadres are not well informed of the real state of the enterprises. The biggest error of all is that production guidance workers do not make on-the-spot visits. I am told that the director of the production guidance bureau of the General Bureau of Metal Industry hardly ever goes to factories and went on inspections for no more than eight days last year. It is obvious, therefore, that he is ignorant of the actual conditions at the enterprises. The minister, vice-ministers and general bureau directors often went round by car, but confined themselves to dropping into the manager’s office and making a tour of the factory. So they are also unaware of how matters stand at the lower levels. At present, no one in the ministry is familiar with factory equipment and workers’ skill levels. For the production guidance bureau to fulfil its duty properly, it must be well informed of the situation at enterprises. However, the director of this bureau guides production through paperwork in his office without knowing about enterprises, and shifts the responsibility for a failure in production on to them. When I asked the workers at the Kangson Steel Plant last year why they failed to turn out more steel, they replied that this was due to the lack of electricity. Going deeper into this reason, I found that they repaired a furnace in the rainy season, with the result that they suspended production at a time when electricity was plentiful. They could otherwise have produced 10,000 to 15,000 tons more steel. So, I asked them why they did not repair the furnace in advance but did it when electricity was plentiful. They answered that they had been shortsighted. Although the subordinates worked in this way, their superiors sat idle, knowing nothing. If the ministry cadres were sensible, they would have repaired and regulated furnaces in the dry season and operated all the equipment in the rainy season. But, since they did not study the question of production but guided it carelessly, they inflicted heavy losses on the state. 27 === [PDF page 36] === In guiding production, too, I think it necessary to follow army methods. Whenever we visit a unit, we select one company or one platoon and test its tactical training, forced marching and shooting or examine its weapons. Through this we are able to appraise the unit’s fighting capacity and judge the condition of the whole unit. While giving guidance to Chongsan-ri, too, we inquired into rural conditions as we did in the army. At that time, we were told that South Phyongan Province was fully prepared for farming. So we instructed the chairman of the South Phyongan Provincial Party Committee to go to a cooperative farm in Onchon County and make a detailed study of the situation. The result was that supplies of sickles, hoes and carrier’s baskets were found not to have been provided. Nevertheless, the province had alleged that it had completed its farming preparations. The production guidance bureau of the ministry should always have a clear understanding of the situation of factories. They must know every detail about the production sites and go into the availability of equipment and its spare parts even down to small hooks. To take the Kangson Steel Plant for example. Senior officials of the ministry should visit the plant and try operating furnaces and measure the electricity supply so that they can acquaint themselves with the state of the furnaces and their length of life and the capacity of transformers and they should also have a clear understanding of the workers’ standards of technique and skill. Next, competent officials should be sent to direct enterprises and guidance should, under all circumstances, be given in such a way as to help the officials there; that is, by the Chongsanri method. Instructors of the ministry should at least come up to the level of factory managers. Although ministries are not staffed completely with qualified people because there are not many of them, when instructors are sent to the factories for direction, their head should be well-informed. Only then can they give effective help to factory management. If one or two instructors, whose qualifications are low, are sent, it is of no use. Instructors of the ministry who are sent to enterprises to give 28 === [PDF page 37] === guidance should first call on the factory Party committee to inform it of their objective, and then consult about assignments which the factory Party committee members and instructors should take and about how they will give guidance. They should also hold frequent factory Party committee meetings at which they sum up the results of guidance and discuss the measures needed to correct their defects in guidance, and actively help the factory Party committee members and management workers to rectify shortcomings in factory work. However, in the past guidance by the ministry was not given in this way. Those who went to factories for guidance formed a separate cell to lead Party life and, instead of consulting with the factory Party committee, they rather disagreed with it. They would act like taskmasters and find nothing but faults before returning. Since guidance aims at assisting enterprises, they should correct the shortcomings on the spot, if they find any. What is the use of guiding if you return after jotting down shortcomings in your notebooks, instead of correcting them? Even if you report them, the minister and other senior officials of the ministry pay no attention to them. When guiding enterprises, it is useless to urge people to work hard and pick fault with them. To give such guidance scores of times is no better than giving proper guidance once. If the ministry goes out to give guidance, it must teach every detail relating to factory management, ranging from the organization of production, technical guidance and technical preparations to bookkeeping, rectify the defects in management and solve knotty problems in production. This will make the officials of enterprises happy about its guidance. The present system of guidance is rather cumbersome for the enterprises. Some management workers say outright that they would be pleased to get on with production without it. This is by no means incidental. The ministry’s method of guidance must be decisively improved. At the same time, you should establish a rigid system of review on returning from such a visit. Not only should the minister receive the 29 === [PDF page 38] === report, but also a general meeting of ministry officials must be called to hear it, exchanging views on the guidance and criticizing any flaws that there might be. Furthermore, you must correct a mistaken tendency to give too prominent a place to your own intelligence when giving advice. However intelligent you may be, you will not be able to understand everything about a factory on your own. Those who work irresponsibly according to their subjective views, instead of relying on the masses, will be doomed to failure. Even if the minister or vice-ministers go to an enterprise to direct it, they must not fail to work in unison with the factory Party committee and depending on the relevant specialists and the broad masses. Even when a technical problem arises at the factory, they should hold a conference to discuss and examine it collectively before coming to any conclusion. At present, however, they do not do so but draw hasty conclusions, without group discussion, based on one man’s written opinion. Being accustomed to working in a way which relies on the intelligence of an individual, they make grave mistakes: one or two people deal arbitrarily with even an important state matter, without consulting the masses. This kind of attitude must be thoroughly corrected and all problems must be settled by wide-scale discussions with the masses and making use of their wisdom and initiative. Another important factor in ministry guidance is the desirability of giving intensive guidance to one enterprise so as to make an example of it, and then to spread the experience gained in the process to other enterprises. If you complete the guidance of a particular enterprise, you should always inform all other enterprises of the experience gained and the lessons which have been learned. In this way all enterprises should be well aware of shortcomings which have been found in the course of guidance and also their cause, so that they may learn from experience and correct any defects in their own work themselves. The recent guidance of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical 30 === [PDF page 39] === Industries, too, has such an object. It is by no means aimed at improving the work of this ministry alone. Through the examination of its work we intend to teach a lesson to the officials of other ministries and economic agencies so that they can rectify any shortcomings in their own work. For this very reason, we decided that officials of other ministries and economic bodies should participate in this meeting. Another important matter to which the ministry’s senior officials should pay attention is raising the qualifications of its staff. Improvement in the work of the ministry cannot be hoped for unless all its staff–the minister, vice-ministers and instructors–improve their political and practical qualifications. In this connection, it is important for the minister and vice-ministers to strengthen their work with ministry instructors. Senior officials should always tell their subordinates about their experience in guidance and explain the merits of the factories under their control, their defects and how to correct them. But there is no such practice in the ministries at present. At best, if they do work among people, the minister and vice-ministers will summon some technicians to ask about technical matters. They virtually neglect to explain Party policies to the instructors and teach them how to work so that they can improve their political and practical qualifications. The minister and other cadres of the ministry should always pay great attention to increasing the leadership ability of their staff. The minister himself must set an example in study and must give his officials frequent lectures on Party policies and other matters of concern. The vice-ministers should be called in on problems of economic management and techniques, or factory management workers and technicians might be invited for the purpose. It will also be of great benefit to ministry workers if senior officials of enterprises give them lectures on the practical side of their work. Ministry workers, too, should be encouraged to implement the principle of 8-hours work, 8-hours study and 8-hours rest, and they must establish the habit of studying hard. After the eight-hour workday is over, they must be encouraged to undertake the study of politics, 31 === [PDF page 40] === technology and their own specialities to enhance their leadership ability. Unless it establishes study discipline for the purpose of raising the leadership ability of all its workers sharply in a short space of time, the ministry will not be able to perform its duties as an organ for carrying out the Party’s economic policy. Another important matter in the ministry’s guidance is to keep the supply of raw materials ahead of production as explained at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee. At the moment the shortage of raw materials is one of the main causes of fluctuations in production and of the wastage of manpower in all branches of the national economy. This being the case, the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries and all other ministries should try to have at least a month’s supply of raw materials in reserve in accordance with the decision of the plenary meeting. At this meeting you have had a lot to say about the shortcomings of the ministry cadres in their guidance, but very little about the economic and practical matters arising in ministry work, such as the problems of technical innovation, economizing in manpower and improving its administration. In particular, there was almost no discussion on such important matters as the measures which should be taken for the prevention of accidents. Despite repeated labour and other accidents, the ministry does not take them seriously nor does it seek to apportion the blame. You should naturally fix the responsibility for any accidents not only through administrative and Party channels but also by law. But the ministry has not done so administratively, neither have the relevant Party organizations and the Party control committees done so through Party channels. Even the public prosecutors offices do not ask who is legally responsible. Since the cadres of enterprises and the ministry pay little attention to accidents at work and there are no legal sanctions or Party admonitions, responsible workers become more apathetic to occupational safety and accidents continue to happen. It is also necessary to increase political vigilance against accidents. 32 === [PDF page 41] === Of course, not all labour and other accidents can be taken for subversive acts against the revolution, but we cannot say that they are not hostile. We should not forget, for even a moment, that our enemies detest our success in socialist construction and are resorting to every possible subversive trick to obstruct it. We must never tolerate an indifferent attitude towards such accidents because we should protect the health and lives of our working people and revolutionary comrades, quite apart from the question of political vigilance. The causes of all accidents can be traced to lack of discipline. A slight violation of the safety regulations has serious consequences. Generally speaking, accidents in mines also are caused by even the smallest breach of discipline. Only when order and discipline are established is it possible to prevent accidents and curb the stratagems of spies, subversive elements and saboteurs. If order and discipline are slack and relaxation and idleness increase, spies will slip in and accidents will occur. It is advisable that you should discuss this problem more seriously. Of course, it would be beneficial if you were to subject senior ministry workers to further criticism and self-criticism and continue to discuss steps on rectifying the shortcomings in the ministry’s work during the past year and the implementation of this year’s plan. In this way you should sum up past work and bring home to all comrades the new year’s assignments and the direction of work, so that the recent general membership meeting of the ministry Party committee can mark a turning point in the ministry’s work. We intend to ensure that workers of the Party Central Committee keep on attending the general membership meeting of the Party organization of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries for one year. We will thus get to know actual conditions better and will be able to help you in your work. I hope that all Party members and staff of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries will set an example in putting an end to bureaucracy and carrying through the Taean work system and the Chongsanri method. 33 === [PDF page 42] === REPLY TO A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE KOREAN AFFAIRS INSTITUTE IN WASHINGTON January 8, 1965 I have received your letter. It gives me great pleasure to learn that you are deeply concerned about the question of reunifying the country. As you know, our nation has been a victim of territorial partition and national division for 20 years. Although a new generation has grown up, not even contact and travel between north and south Korea have been established, to say nothing of the reunification of the country, the long-cherished aspiration of the nation; the artificial barrier of national partition remains unchanged. As the days go by the gap between the north and the south is growing wider in all spheres of political, economic and cultural life, and even the national characteristics common to our people, a homogeneous nation formed during a long history, are gradually becoming diverging. The division of the nation rules out the possibility of coordinated mobilization and use of the national wealth and the strength of the people for the development of the country; it brings unbearable sufferings to all the Korean people. The division of Korea into north and south brings immeasurable misery and misfortune, particularly to the living conditions of the people in the south. 34 === [PDF page 43] === The prosperity of the whole nation cannot be hoped for and the people in south Korea cannot be rescued from their wretched plight unless the division of our country is terminated and reunification is achieved. It is natural that in south Korea today, the broad masses of the people are crying out that they cannot live unless the country is reunified, and many public figures who possess a national conscience are fighting courageously for the reunification of the country. This is an urgent national task which cannot be postponed any longer. It is high time, we believe, for all Koreans without exception, who are patriotic and concerned about the future of the nation, to do their utmost to reunify the country. The whole world knows that our Government, expressing the universal desire and will of the entire Korean people, has made persevering efforts to achieve reunification. We consider that the solution of this question must not be obstructed by the interests of any party, grouping or privileged circle at the expense of the nation’s interests, and that reunification must in any case be accomplished in a democratic way, in accordance with the general will of the entire Korean people, and not by one side forcing its will on the other. We do not allow anyone to impose his will upon us and we, on our part, do not intend to force our will on others. We have always maintained that the authorities, political parties, social organizations and individual personalities of north and south Korea should sit down together and negotiate sincerely and open-heartedly to solve the problem of reunification. I make it clear once again that, just as we have done up until now, so in the future our Government will exert every effort to achieve the reunification of the country in conformity with the desire of the people and the national interests, and that it is ready to accept anyone’s opinion, provided that it is helpful towards the solution of this question. In your letter you set forth views that have many points in common 35 === [PDF page 44] === with a number of proposals we have already made, time and again, for the settlement of the question of reunification. As we have always maintained, it must be carried out in accord with the principles of independence and democracy, and peacefully, without the interference of any outside forces. We consider that any attempt to reunify the country by relying on outside forces is nothing but an illusion and is designed to leave the whole of Korea in the hands of the imperialist aggressors. The question of Korean reunification is an internal affair of the Korean people which admits no interference from outside forces. The Korean question must be settled by the Koreans themselves. Foreigners are not in a position to solve the internal affairs of our nation. Ours is a resourceful and civilized nation, fully capable of solving its national problem by itself. The basic obstacle to the country’s reunification is the US imperialists who are occupying south Korea militarily, interfering in our domestic affairs, carrying out a policy of dividing our nation and pursuing an aggressive policy against the whole of Korea. They have brought south Korea completely under their colonial domination in all political, economic, military and cultural fields and brought utter ruin to the life of its people. Withdrawal of all foreign troops from south Korea is the prerequisite to reunification. In north Korea there are absolutely no foreign troops. The Chinese People’s Volunteers withdrew completely from north Korea on their own initiative as early as 1958. However, the US army in the guise of the United Nations, is stationed in south Korea. The United States has no ground or excuse whatsoever to base its army there. There can be no independence or sovereignty as long as a foreign army of aggression is established on one’s territory. Any people who have the least spark of national conscience ought 36 === [PDF page 45] === to demand the withdrawal of the US troops and work to expel them from our territory. We must stir up the indignation of the entire nation against the US imperialist aggressors and mobilize all the patriotic forces in the struggle to drive them out of south Korea. Your proposal that all foreign troops should be withdrawn in order to solve the question of Korean reunification is a just one. It is our consistent view that the question of Korean reunification should be solved through the establishment of a unified central government comprising representatives of people of all classes and social levels through free north-south general elections to be held in a democratic way, without interference by any outside forces, after the withdrawal of all foreign troops from south Korea. These general elections should be held in a completely free and democratic atmosphere, without any conditions that might hamper or repress, even slightly, the expression of the will of the people. Free, democratic elections are inconceivable as long as the democratic rights of the people are being violated and patriotic movements are being suppressed. To hold free north-south general elections, there must first be full guarantees of complete freedom of political activity for all the political parties, social organizations and individual personalities, as well as freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association and demonstration, throughout north and south Korea. All the political prisoners who have been arrested and imprisoned for having demanded democratic liberties and the country’s independent reunification should be set free unconditionally. All citizens should have equal rights to elect and to be elected at any place throughout Korea, regardless of party affiliation, political views, property status, education, religious faith or sex. Only through such genuinely democratic elections based on the principles of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot, can a unified independent and democratic government be established which represents the interests of the workers, peasants, youth and students, 37 === [PDF page 46] === intellectuals, servicemen, traders, entrepreneurs and others from all classes and walks of life. This proposal of ours is most fair and reasonable, acceptable to everyone. However, the successive rulers of south Korea have doggedly opposed our just proposal, and have clamoured for so-called “elections under UN supervision”. The Korean people know only too well what “elections under UN supervision” are. It is no secret that the election of Syngman Rhee, traitor to the Korean people, was rigged more than once; that Jang Myon’s assumption to power was fabricated and the seizure of power by Park Chung Hee was legalized, all through “elections under UN supervision” imposed on south Korea from 1948 until now. “Elections under UN supervision” are no more than a screen for covering the insidious aggressive plot of the US imperialists to extend to north Korea the colonial system which they have forced upon the people in the south. In Korea the United Nations has been used as an aggressive tool of the United States. The United Nations has no competence whatsoever to involve itself in the Korean question. The Korean people do not want anyone meddling in the solution of the question of their country’s reunification. We must in any case achieve it by ourselves. As the south Korean rulers, at the instigation of US imperialism, persisted in opposing the establishment of a unified government of Korea through free, democratic elections, we could not just sit with folded arms waiting for the day of reunification and could only seek ways of gradual approach to complete reunification by taking all steps conducive to the reunification of the country. You must know that we have for a long time been proposing the establishment of a Confederation of north and south Korea as a transitional step for settling the urgent and immediate problems of the nation even before the attainment of complete reunification and 38 === [PDF page 47] === for facilitating reunification itself. The Confederation we have proposed envisages the formation of a Supreme National Committee composed of equal numbers of representatives appointed by the two governments, mainly with the object of coordinating the uniform economic and cultural development of north and south Korea and of promoting mutual cooperation and exchange between the two sides in the common interests of the nation, while retaining the existing political systems in north and south Korea and maintaining the independent activities of the two governments. The reunification commission you have suggested can be regarded as analogous to the Supreme National Committee we have mentioned. In our opinion, it would also be a good idea to work out measures for restoring the national bonds between the north and the south and for carrying out the reunification of the country independently, not necessarily through the form of a Confederation, but by setting up some other kind of joint organ to be composed of representatives from north and south Korea. We have maintained time and again that if the south Korean authorities cannot accept the Confederation, then the nation’s sufferings caused by the division should at least be softened by effecting north-south economic and cultural exchanges, leaving aside political questions for the time being. The economic exchange between the north and the south would organically combine industrial north Korea with agrarian south Korea and facilitate the unified, independent development of the national economy, and it would open the way for reviving south Korea’s ruined economy and stabilizing the living conditions of its people who are in dire straits. We have already built a developed industry and agriculture and laid firm economic foundations for an independent state in north Korea. This is the economic asset which would permit our nation to live independently after the country is reunified in the future. When, with tightened belts, we were rebuilding the economy that had been ravaged beyond description by the US imperialist aggressors, 39 === [PDF page 48] === we were always mindful of the interests and future development of the whole nation. We have not for a moment forgotten our compatriots in south Korea; we consider it our sacred national duty to help the suffering people there. Along with the introduction of economic exchanges, cultural ties in all spheres of science, culture, the arts, sport, and so on should be restored, and travel between north and south should be allowed. The south Korean authorities, following the dictates of US imperialism, are opposed to free north-south general elections, opposed to a Confederation of north and south Korea and opposed even to economic and cultural exchanges and travel between north and south. Under these circumstances, we insist that at least people should be allowed to write to each other as a minimum step for forging ties between the north and south. This reflects the pressing demand of the people for ending the extremely abnormal situation in which parents, wives and children, relatives and friends who are separated in the north and the south cannot even write to each other. It is of prime importance in achieving the reunification of the country to eliminate the tension created between the north and the south. It might be recalled that in this connection we have time and again proposed to the south Korean authorities that, after US troops are completely withdrawn from south Korea, north and south Korean authorities should conclude a peace agreement pledging not to resort to armed attack against each other, and that the armed forces of both north and south Korea be reduced to 100,000 or less. The oversize armed forces of south Korea, numbering more than 600,000 men, are an unbearably heavy military expenditure for the south Korean people and severely menace peace in Korea. The withdrawal of all foreign troops from south Korea, the conclusion of a peace agreement between the north and the south and the reduction of the armed forces on both sides will mark a giant step forward on the road to the country’s reunification. 40 === [PDF page 49] === We regard as a welcome idea your proposal that the north and south Korean armies be cut to the level of constabulary units for the maintenance of internal security and order. We are ready to take any other steps which may be helpful to the solution of the reunification question. We are willing to abrogate the military pacts we have concluded with foreign countries on the condition that the US army is withdrawn from south Korea and the south Korean authorities abolish all the military pacts and agreements they have signed with foreign countries. We made this clear previously, when we were concluding the pacts with other countries. Ours is an independent people’s power established freely in accordance with the general will of the people. We have never relied on outside forces; we maintain complete independence in all spheres–political, economic, military and cultural. Our domestic and foreign policies are completely independent, brooking no interference from any foreign country. Our Government, whenever it deems it necessary for the interests of the country and the nation, can take appropriate actions on its own initiative. We have devoted all our sincere efforts to the reunification of our country. Even after the present rulers of south Korea staged a “military coup” and seized power, we repeatedly advanced a number of proposals of national salvation aimed at removing the national distress and accelerating the reunification of the country, in the sincere hope that they would return to a national position. However, following the aggressive and divisive policy of the US imperialists and disregarding the ardent desire of the nation, they have refused to listen to our sincere advice; on the contrary, they are trying to perpetuate the partition of the nation. The responsibility for the failure to achieve the reunification of our country up to now rests with the US imperialists who have occupied south Korea by force of arms and have been pursuing a policy of splitting our nation, and with such traitors as Park Chung Hee, the reactionary bureaucrats, the political quacks and impostors who, hand 41 === [PDF page 50] === in glove with the US imperialists, are bartering away the interests of the nation. They serve the foreign aggressive forces, opposing the independent and peaceful reunification of the country and categorically rejecting the unity of the national forces; they defend only their own personal interests and those of some privileged circles which are in league with outside forces; they can never represent the south Korean people. They defend the US aggressor army and ask for its permanent stationing, an army which has occupied south Korea and has been obstructing the reunification of our country and perpetrating all and every kind of brutish atrocity such as plundering, oppressing, insulting and killing people in south Korea. Those traitors, turning down our offer to receive millions of unemployed south Koreans into north Korea and give them jobs, are selling out our compatriots to European and American countries as if they were commodities. Moreover, they are even welcoming the Japanese militarists to reduce south Korea to a colony of both US and Japanese imperialism. Manipulated by the United States, the traitors of south Korea, dead set against contact and cooperation within one and the same nation, are hurrying through the criminal “ROK-Japan talks” for collaboration with the Japanese militarists. Those taking the lead in conspiring with Japanese imperialism are also the same stooges who served it faithfully in the past. Refusing to repent of their past crimes, they have now again become the cat’s paw of US imperialism and their old master, Japanese militarism. To achieve the reunification of the country, we should pool the strength of the entire Korean people in north and south and fight against the foreign imperialist aggressive forces and their allies–the traitors, reactionary bureaucrats, political quacks and impostors who are hindering reunification. How can we promote national unity and achieve the reunification of the country without fighting against those who, far from desiring 42 === [PDF page 51] === reunification, categorically reject any contact or exchange between north and south? Needless to say, it would be a different matter if even now they were to repent of their mistakes and take up the struggle for the withdrawal of the US army and for the independent reunification of the country. If a man defends the interests of the nation and desires the country’s reunification, we will join hands and go together with him at any time, regardless of his political views and ideology and of his past record. If all the patriotic forces of north and south Korea unite, we will, without doubt, open the road to contact and negotiation between the north and the south, realize mutual cooperation and exchange, force the US army to withdraw, and achieve the reunification of the country. Without unity and struggle we can neither drive out the US aggressor army nor achieve national reunification. The point is that the south Korean people of all walks of life–workers, peasants, youth and students, intellectuals, armymen, traders, entrepreneurs and so on–should firmly unite and wage a more resolute national-salvation campaign against US imperialism and its stooges, for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country. We should under no circumstances tolerate any form of interference in the domestic affairs of our nation; we must thoroughly oppose “protection” or “supervision” by anyone and must carve out our own destiny on our own. When we achieve the reunification of our country on the principle of the self-determination of nations and when the whole nation fights in unity, we will be able to increase the might of the country and build a rich and powerful, independent sovereign state, without needing “guarantees” from any outside forces. Our country will surely be reunified through the nationwide struggle of the entire Korean people. In conclusion, I express the hope that you will make positive efforts to accelerate the independent reunification of the country. 43 === [PDF page 52] === ON IMPROVING THE METHOD OF GUIDANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF FACTORIES AND ENTERPRISES Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee of the Hwanghae Iron Works January 11 and 16, 1965 1. ON IMPROVING THE METHOD OF GUIDANCE OF FACTORIES AND ENTERPRISES We have come here to guide and assist the work of the Hwanghae Iron Works. In the past there were many defects in the guidance given by the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries to factories and enterprises. As I frequently say, the aim of guidance is to give substantial assistance to work. Therefore, if guidance is to be successful, those who have come for this purpose should closely cooperate with the cadres of factories and enterprises. The main shortcoming revealed in the guidance of factories and enterprises in the past was that those who gave it and those who received it did not act in concert for the common goal of improving work. The Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries gave guidance to many factories and enterprises. However, in many cases the guidance work was done without involving their officials; and it did not substantially assist the work of the factories. Those who came from the 44 === [PDF page 53] === ministry did not clearly explain the aim of the guidance to the factory and enterprise officials but worked on their own; they did not make a serious effort to teach what the officials did not know and so solve their difficult problems. They were mainly interested in finding fault with them and taking them to task. Furthermore, those who came to give guidance tried to put on airs and behaved as they pleased, lording it over the officials of the factories and enterprises like chiefs in olden times. They did not rely on the factory Party committees and were unwilling to mix with the Party members and masses. In the past a certain management bureau chief did not take part in a single Party meeting although he stayed at the Hwanghae Iron Works for nearly six months; he did not pay attention to the suggestions which his subordinates brought up and handled things as he pleased. This is why, despite the fact that many people came from the ministry to give guidance, they were not fully aware how matters stood at the factory–what the Party members and other workers were thinking and what their difficulties were and the like, and they were unable even to examine a single problem in depth. Many senior ministry officials did not take any specific measures on the spot, but returned with a list of faults and sharply reprimanded their subordinates. They substituted this for guidance. Because guidance was given in this way by the ministry, the officials concerned did not place much reliance on the guidance given by their superiors; they were not willing to accept it with an open mind and tried, as far as possible, to hide their mistakes. We should remedy the shortcomings which have been revealed in the guidance to factories and enterprises once and for all. To this end, we should first ensure that all those who come here for this purpose are placed under the direction and control of the factory Party committee and that they continue their Party life even in the course of their work here. This is the way they can combine their efforts with those of factory officials and give them correct direction and help through the Party method. 45 === [PDF page 54] === The members of the group who have now come from the central authorities will belong to the factory Party committee throughout the whole period of guidance beginning today and will conduct this work in association with the factory officials. They will respect all the resolutions and opinions of the factory Party committee, take an active part in its meetings and earnestly endeavour to give substantial assistance to the work of the Party committee chairman, the manager and the chief engineer. Furthermore, they must not only put to rights what is going wrong at the factory, and explain in detail what the factory officials do not know, but also learn from their merits with an open mind. Only when the guidance work is done in the spirit of learning from each other like this will those who have come to give guidance and those who receive it be able to promote the work in harmony. How should this work be conducted? Those who have come to give guidance must first report to the factory Party committee about the purpose of the guidance and the basic objectives to be achieved through it. And the factory Party committee will tell them about its work and the state of affairs at the factory. Then the committee will identify the main problems which need advice according to prevailing conditions at the factory and allocate the members of the guidance group and the factory cadres to the matters requiring guidance. The members will go to the workshop for which they are responsible and familiarize themselves with its work, and the factory Party committee will receive an interim report to see whether all of them have correctly diagnosed the problem, and if they have not done so, it should take measures for them to examine the problem more thoroughly. Upon the completion of the guidance work the factory Party committee chairman will sum it up and present to the committee a report which gives a detailed analysis of the problems which have been solved and those which have not been settled. On the basis of this report, the Party committee will discuss the measures needed to solve the outstanding problems and adopt an appropriate decision. 46 === [PDF page 55] === After this it will map out a plan to implement the decision and the manager and the chief engineer will also draw up their plan. One copy of the administrative plan should be sent to the ministry. In terms of this plan the responsible bureau of the ministry will immediately take the necessary measures. Guidance will be successful only when it follows this procedure. From now on I shall report on the purpose of guidance in place of the Minister of Metal Industry and receive reports about conditions at the factory from the chairman of the factory Party committee, the chairmen of the branch Party committees and the cell chairmen and shop managers. The recent Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee discussed important problems to be solved for the present development of our national economy. The resolution of the plenary meeting pointed out the matters of promoting the technical revolution, improving labour administration and intensifying the system of making economies, thoroughly introducing the Taean work system and improving Party direction of the national economy. We are going to direct the work of the Hwanghae Iron Works in conformity with the spirit of this resolution. In short, the aim of our current visit is to guide and assist the Hwanghae Iron Works so that it will improve its work in accordance with the spirit of the plenary meeting, successfully complete the plan for 1965 and attain the goals for steel and pig iron production envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan. If we are to make progress in our work we must first have a clear understanding of our defects. Last year the Hwanghae Iron Works fulfilled its basic plan but not the plan for increased production. Last year’s target was not very much higher than that for the year before. Your failure to implement the assignment for increased production means that in fact the work of the Hwanghae Iron Works marked time throughout the year instead of making progress. The main reason for the unsatisfactory work here lies primarily in 47 === [PDF page 56] === the weak Party spirit and class spirit of its senior officials. Not only the officials of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries who directed this enterprise were lacking in strong Party and class spirit; the officials of this iron works were also wanting in loyalty to the Party and working-class revolutionary spirit. Had you had a strong revolutionary spirit to meet the demand of the Party, you would have been quite able to achieve last year’s target for increased production by tapping all reserves and potentials. Our Party has been organized with the working class as its hard core. Therefore, we can say that our Party has more of its hard-core elements at such factories and enterprises as the Hwanghae Iron Works, Kangson Steel Plant and Songjin Steel Plant than anywhere else. The Hwanghae Iron Works in particular occupies a very important place in the development of our national economy. To put it in military terms, this iron works can be said to be like a unit advancing in the centre. In wartime only when the central unit which is standing in the van charges well, will the other units be able to advance as they should. Likewise, in developing the national economy, only when the central sector such as the Hwanghae Iron Works does its work well, will the other branches be able to function smoothly. Therefore, the officials of the Hwanghae Iron Works should be aware that they, more than anyone else, are the hard-core unit of our Party and should display the revolutionary spirit of the working class more brilliantly. Now the number of employees at the works exceeds 10,000. It has several hundred engineers, and when assistant engineers are added, their total number far exceeds 1,000. With such a large detachment of the working class you should be able to solve any problem provided you organize your work well. However, last year you did not organize and mobilize this force efficiently and failed to achieve the results which were well within your power in the struggle to produce more steel and pig iron. Also present here are comrades from the Kangson Steel Plant. Last year they could not produce more steel because of the shortage of pig 48 === [PDF page 57] === iron, and from the beginning of this year, too, their work is being hampered for the same reason. Kangso is not far from here. You can go to the Kangson Steel Plant and see how anxious the workers there are about the lack of pig iron. If you had told your workers of their feelings and roused them to try harder for increased production, you would have undoubtedly produced more pig iron. But you did not do this. This shows that the officials of the Hwanghae Iron Works have not fully prepared themselves ideologically to meet the production targets of steel and pig iron proposed by our Party at its Fourth Congress, nor do they try hard in accordance with the working-class attitude. Another reason for the unsatisfactory work here is that the officials lack the attitude of masters. The master of the factory in the first instance is its Party committee. Therefore, the factory Party committee should do everything as a master instead of relying on someone else. The Party is at the moment very worried about the lack of steel. However, the officials of the factory Party committee entrust the construction of open-hearth furnace No. 6 solely to building workers. Some time ago the chairman of the committee reported that they had mobilized 120 work hands for the project. The point is not to provide the work force but to complete the project quickly. Had the committee given timely and effective guidance and assistance to the construction work with the attitude of a master, the project would have proceeded as scheduled and the groundwork would already have been finished last year. As a matter of fact, the construction commission is also responsible for the uneven progress of the construction of open-hearth furnace No. 6. In any event, the factory’s Party committee, its master, should, before anyone else, be distressed and feel responsible for the unsatisfactory progress of the construction work at the factory. As you all know, our country has only one blooming mill, the one at the Kangson Steel Plant. This is not enough. So we had planned to 49 === [PDF page 58] === build another at the Hwanghae Iron Works. Originally, it was intended that this shop would be completed in the first half of last year and would be in operation from the second half. If this had been done you could have produced more steel last year. However, you did not give proper guidance and assistance to expediting the construction of such an important workshop; because you delayed work instead of speeding up the project when it was near completion, you are only now carrying out trial operations. The same is true of the construction of the sheet steel shop. We can cite a number of examples of the factory Party committee failing to work with the attitude of a master. If you are to attain the goals set for steel and pig iron production, you will have to show greater Party spirit and class spirit and have the attitude of a master in everything. We must fulfil the Seven-Year Plan and particularly reach the peak of steel and pig iron production at all costs. As you all know, the amount of steel produced is first taken into account when judging the might of a country. If we produce 2.2 million tons of steel as is envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan, this will amply demonstrate the growth of our country’s might. Then the imperialists and their stooges will fear us still more and will not dare attack us recklessly. This will raise the international prestige of our country still more and will be a great inspiration to the embattled people in the southern half of the country. That is why the steel production goal is the most important of all the goals we are going to attain during the period of the Seven-Year Plan. The Fourth Congress of our Party entrusted you with an important revolutionary task of attaining the goals of steel and pig iron production. Your representatives also took part in the Party congress. You should at all costs reach the goals set out by the Party congress. In this way you will once again clearly show the infinite loyalty of our working class to the Party. The duty entrusted to all the workers and technicians of the Hwanghae Iron Works is great and important indeed. What we are 50 === [PDF page 59] === going to do here first is to bring home to you once more the place this enterprise holds in our national economy and the honourable task it has been given. Through our current guidance we also intend to discuss seriously with you the problems of the technical revolution, of a better use of equipment and of capital construction. The technical revolution is the most important revolutionary task confronting us at the moment. We should not think that someone else will carry it out for us. We have to carry out extensive technological transformation on our own. We cannot equip our factories and enterprises with modern technology all at once. It is first necessary to correctly define the immediate goal of the technical revolution. What is of the utmost importance for this factory is to fulfil the production plan without using additional manpower through active technological transformation. You must make greater use of the equipment and put all equipment into operation. You must also solve the problem of extending the life of the furnace and quickly normalize the operation of equipment which is not yet being fully used, such as that in the blooming shop and the sheet steel shop. At present capital construction is very behindhand at the Hwanghae Iron Works. Judging from your report, there are many dark spots in this field. The construction force seems to be dispersed and control of construction work appears to be unsatisfactory. The reason for the lack of success in capital construction here lies, in the final analysis, in the officials’ dearth of Party spirit, class spirit and loyalty to the people. According to the report, you have not provided padded coats to the chimney builders in such cold weather as we are now having. This fact is enough to show that senior officials have not got proper appreciation of the workers. In the past senior officials in the construction sector gave guidance like a superintendent making a round of various places in a car. As a matter of fact, there are too many masters in this field. I was told that at 51 === [PDF page 60] === the construction sites they cannot do their work properly because today this man comes to give this instruction and tomorrow that man comes to give another. On this occasion we shall scrupulously examine work in the construction sector and adopt suitable measures. First we must find out why construction work is scattered and discover in detail the reasons for the delay in the building of the blooming shop, the sheet steel shop, open-hearth furnace No. 6 and the chemical shop. We should undertake construction projects intensively and the factory itself should take measures to give active assistance in this work. Next year we intend to build another blast furnace at the Hwanghae Iron Works. If we are to complete it in a short time, we must make proper preparations this year. During our current guidance we also intend to discuss measures for strengthening study of Party policy and also technical study. In addition we plan to deal with the problem of improving supply services. These are the main problems we are going to deal with during our current direction. We have not come here to take anyone to task or force anything on you. We are going to discuss everything with you seriously so as to solve your difficult problems and take concrete measures for reaching the goals of steel and pig iron production. You must not try to seek the reason for your failure in work only in the direction given by the ministry. We should seek the reason for our failure in ourselves and strive to solve all problems by our own efforts. We must always work on the principle that we are perfectly able to do anything on our own so long as there are Party members and Party organizations. The factory Party committee must actively rouse all the Party members, members of the League of Socialist Working Youth, all workers, technicians and office employees to institute a vigorous drive for increased production and must mobilize all the reserves at the disposal of the Hwanghae Iron Works. In this way you should produce more steel, pig iron and steel materials than the plan provides for so as 52 === [PDF page 61] === to make up for what you failed to do last year. Only if we produce a great deal this year will we be able to reach a higher level next year and succeed in implementing the provisions of the Seven-Year Plan. This, in general, is the aim of our current guidance work. Now we should organize guidance groups and send them to important sectors such as the furnace shop, steel shop, crude steel shop, and repair and power-supply shop. In organizing these groups we ought to pay attention to the problem of achieving a proper combination of people from the higher authorities and factory officials, including its Party committee members. We should not organize them into separate groups. They must be well organized so as to combine those who have come for guidance including officials from the Party Central Committee and provincial Party committee, the economic planning bureau and production guidance bureau under the ministry and the planning commission and the Party workers, planning workers, officials in charge of guiding production and technical personnel at the factory. In particular, it is advisable to combine and send to the construction sector officials from the Organizational Leadership Department and the Construction and Transport Department of the Party Central Committee, provincial Party committee, planning workers, construction workers, officials of the Ministry of Metal Industry and technicians. It will also be good for senior officials such as the Minister of Metal Industry, chairman of the provincial Party committee, chairman of the factory Party committee and manager to go personally to inspect important shops. The members of the guidance groups who go to their assigned areas should not try to give technical guidance merely, but should first guide them along political lines. They should give precedence to political work aimed at rousing the Party members and workers to the implementation of the tasks proposed by the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee, and, at the same time, they should discuss economic and technical problems. For two or three days they should have talks with workers who are 53 === [PDF page 62] === directly engaged in production, look around shop floors and acquaint themselves in detail with how things are proceeding there. Then they must summon either a cell meeting or a general membership meeting of the branch Party committee and discuss in detail whether they will be able to fulfil the plan, how much they can produce above the plan, and what problems have to be solved and what organizational and technical measures should be taken for increased production. At the meeting they should also seriously discuss concrete measures for promoting the technical revolution and how to make the best use of the labour force. After this the members of the groups should submit their written opinions to the factory Party committee. These should include the organizational steps necessary for the implementation of the 1965 plan and the ten major tasks, the technical problems which should be solved and the ideological preparedness of Party members. The shop manager or the shop Party cell chairman or the chairman of the branch Party committee should inform the factory Party committee of what has been discussed at the meeting. The factory Party committee chairman should open the committee session and make a report of what has been discussed at the Party cell meeting or the general membership meeting of the branch Party committee. The report should contain a general conclusion on the guidance work. On the basis of the report the Party committee should hold detailed discussions and adopt a resolution. The factory Party committee must hold discussions estimating in detail how much they can produce this year and how much by the end of the Seven-Year Plan. You should never argue about an abstract figure floating in the air. The ten major tasks envisage the production of 800,000 tons of steel at the Hwanghae Iron Works; this is not such a high figure. Therefore, you should make precise arrangements for the production of more steel and pig iron by enlisting latent reserves. It would be a good thing for the resolution of the factory Party committee to indicate not only what should be done at the factory itself but also those problems which need to be solved by others. In other 54 === [PDF page 63] === words, the resolution should indicate all the problems that have been proposed–what equipment the Ministry of Machine Industry should provide, how the mine should supply iron ore, how the construction commission should carry out the construction project, how the transport sector should solve its problems, and so on. After the resolution is adopted, the executive plan should be drawn up. It should be divided into every month and quarter and should be drafted, not only by the factory officials, but also by combining the efforts of all the officials from the Ministry of Metal Industry, the State Planning Commission and the provincial planning commission. It will be worthwhile to proceed with guidance in accordance with the procedure and method set out above. Then it will be possible to give scope to the wisdom and zeal of both those who give guidance and those who receive it, and the guidance will be fruitful. 2. ON SUCCESSFULLY FULFILLING THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLAN FOR 1965 AND THE SEVEN-YEAR PLAN On the authority of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee I have now guided the work of the Hwanghae Iron Works for almost a week in company with many senior officials including the chairman of the State Planning Commission. During this period we have compared the existing national economic plan for this year with the factory’s production capacity and have had extensive discussions with the factory Party committee, the general membership meeting of the primary Party committee and cell meetings on the question of implementing this year’s plan and the ten major tasks successfully by tapping all reserves. We also had discussions on a number of occasions with senior officials and active Party members of the factory. 55 === [PDF page 64] === The members of the guidance group and the Party members of the factory including the members of its Party committee should enthusiastically participate in the guidance work and make many worthwhile suggestions about what measures should be taken in order to advance technical innovations and put an end to the wastage of manpower. Through this guidance the wisdom of the masses has been given full play and many reserves for increased production have been sought out. Drawing on this, we were able to formulate a new, bold and revolutionary production plan. During our current guidance we have become firmly convinced that not only can the Hwanghae Iron Works fulfil its plan but the goals of pig iron and steel production envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan as a whole are also quite attainable. Now I would like to refer to the problems which should be solved in enterprise management in order to implement the 1965 plan and the Seven-Year Plan successfully. 1) ON APPLYING THE MASS LINE IN PLANNING The most important thing in drawing up a plan is to apply the mass line. This time we have been able to achieve great success here because we had mapped out the plan by combining the efforts of the masses of producers. A plan can be realistic only when senior officials go to the masses and draw it up by discussing it with them and drawing on their wisdom. And only such a plan can give the producer masses inspiring strength and firm confidence. To draw up a realistic and objective plan, you have to define correct production targets, calculating in detail all the production factors including equipment, materials and manpower. For instance, when you design a construction plan you must consider in detail all factors such as what is most important among all the construction projects, which of 56 === [PDF page 65] === them should be given priority, the scale of the project, what kind of materials and equipment is needed to carry it out, the technical and ideological level of the building workers, and what is the guiding level of the officials. The wisdom of a few officials is not enough to draw up an accurate and detailed plan which takes into consideration all the varied and complicated production factors. We should consult with the broad masses of producers and enlist their strength and wisdom because they know the existing situation better than anyone else. For instance, the Party members and workers who work at the blast furnace know more about the production of pig iron than officials of the planning commission or senior officials of the ministry. Therefore, in order to draw up a plan for the production of pig iron, we should confer with the employees at the blast furnace. If you discuss things with the masses, you will derive considerably greater strength than when you work all alone and you will find more reserves for increased production. It can be said that making the revolution through the enlistment of the masses is the work method stemming from the nature of communists. The party is the vanguard detachment of the working class and an organization fighting in the interests of all the people. Our Workers’ Party members should apply the communist method of work whereby they go among the masses to discuss with them and enlist their intelligence. We can say that relying on the wisdom of one individual is a manual method. This is a method whereby people worked individually and in isolation relying on manual technology, in the feudal era when industry was not developed. Turning the spinning wheel alone and weaving hemp cloth alone are all manual methods. In those days the politics of the country were the concern of the king alone. The manual method is a primitive and inefficient method. We cannot govern today’s advanced society in such a way. If we are to manage our modern industrial enterprises, we should rely on scientific methods and mobilize the intelligence of the masses under the collective guidance of the Party committee. 57 === [PDF page 66] === In a socialist society all means of production belong to the public and the factories and enterprises maintain close productive relations under a single national economic system. Therefore, in a socialist society the economy can be managed successfully only when the mass line is implemented under the Party’s leadership and all the people work as befits masters. In putting an end to the one-man direction system by the manager of the factory and strengthening the collective leadership of the factory Party committee, we finally aimed at implementing the mass line. When the scale of industry was small we could manage the enterprises by using the one-man direction system. However, now that the scale of industry has grown and its technical equipment has been considerably improved, we should rely not on the individual wisdom of the manager but on the collective guidance of the Party committee. In the past you did not follow the mass line in drawing up the plan. Therefore, you failed to tap the latent potentialities and do more work which was well within your power. Formerly the ministries put together the plans which had been drawn up by their subordinates in a subjective way at their desks without changing them and submitted them to the State Planning Commission. That body presented them to the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee also without amendment. At the General Bureau of Mining Industry under the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries 13 instructors visited their subordinate units and drew up plans for 24 enterprises in 16 days. If there were a postman’s job delivering letters from door to door, it would be another matter. But plans cannot be formulated by wandering around from place to place like this. It is clear that a plan which has been drawn up in this way cannot accurately reflect the needs of the working people or actual conditions at the production site. In fact, such a plan is merely a sheet of paper devoid of any practical significance. Last year this factory did not draw up a proper construction plan. The State Planning Commission intended to finish the construction of 58 === [PDF page 67] === the blooming shop at the Hwanghae Iron Works in the first half of last year. But this shop has still not been completed. However, the ministry did not take this situation into consideration and forced the production target for the second half of the year on the factory on the assumption that the shop would be completed on time. It is, therefore, natural that the factory could not reach its production target. This made it impossible for all the factories and enterprises, including the steel plant, machine factory and construction agency which are related with the Hwanghae Iron Works, to fulfil their plans properly. This was severely criticized at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee and during the guidance of the Party committee of the ministry which was given subsequently, as a grave consequence of the bureaucratic work style of the senior officials of the ministry. You should clearly understand the danger of “individual heroism” and the manual work method. You must rid yourselves of the petty-bourgeois ideological concept which makes light of the wisdom of the masses while putting faith only in the judgement of individuals, and you must firmly rely on the Party’s mass line in your work. In this way people in senior positions should go to their subordinates and draw up realistic and revolutionary plans, consulting with the producer masses as we have now done. Now there may be some doubt about the practicability of drawing up all the plans of the thousands of factories throughout the country in this way. It is true that our country has a large number of factories, but there are not many important factories like the Hwanghae Iron Works. It will be sufficient for the chairman of the State Planning Commission or the ministers to go direct to the factories which have great importance for the national economy to draw up their plans in association with the producer masses as we have done this time, and the vice-ministers or the chiefs of the management bureaus can go to other factories and formulate their plans by discussing them with the masses in cooperation with the factory Party committees. Then the plans of all 59 === [PDF page 68] === factories and enterprises will be positive and feasible and all the branches will be able to work well with accurate plans. Now you have resolved to discover a great deal of reserves so as to produce more than you had already planned to do. We basically support your new target figures. However, it would be better if you were to trim the major production plans which are largely affected by outside factors so as to make them practicable. Trimming the production plans of some major branches does not imply changing the state plan. We mean to leave the state plan as it is and only to decrease the plan for increased production a little. Needless to say, the plan for increased production should also be implemented without fail. We are going to gear this factory’s plan for increased production to that of other factories. If it fails to implement this plan other factories will also be unable to implement theirs. Only if you manage to produce more than the state plan will it be possible for the machine factories and other factories in the second-stage processing industries and construction enterprises to achieve the aim of building up an 8-percent reserve of steel materials. If an iron works is not supplied with one month’s reserves of iron ore, it is impossible to maintain the normal production of pig iron and steel. In the same way, if the factories of the second-stage processing industries and construction enterprises are not provided with an 8-percent reserve of steel, it is impossible to overcome variations in the production of machinery and in construction operations. In response to the decision of the recent Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee, the workers of the Pyongyang Electric Locomotive Factory showed great enthusiasm from the beginning of January and overfulfilled their plan by 50 per cent on the first day and by 80 per cent on the following day. However, from the third day onwards they could not continue their work because the materials had run out. Such things are to be seen everywhere. You should not only ask others to supply you with reserves of raw materials for one month’s use but you yourselves should endeavour to provide other factories with an 8-percent reserve of materials. 60 === [PDF page 69] === Of course, it would be difficult to do so right now. However, you must supply sufficient reserves of steel for half a month’s use within the next three to four months and provide reserves for one month’s use on a regular basis in six months at the latest. For the successful implementation of the plan, it is necessary, first of all, to organize things meticulously. On this occasion we have, with your assistance, found many reserves but you should not think that now the plan will go ahead by itself. The fact that an accurate plan has been worked out merely means that production targets based on the calculation of existing possibilities have been determined. Even though you make a great deal of fuss about drawing up the plan, it cannot be implemented properly unless detailed measures are taken for its execution. The most important thing here is that the ministry, the management bureau and the factory and shops pool their efforts to draw up monthly and quarterly plans for the implementation of the annual plan and, using them as a basis, produce an efficient plan of campaign. This should show concrete goals and detailed measures on how the technical department should make technical preparations, by what time the repair and power-supply shop should repair the equipment and produce machine parts and what the construction sector should build and by when. Then clear-cut assignments must be allocated. Working closely with the factory Party committee, members of the guidance group have given rough assignments for the work which should be done by the factory and the shops themselves, in addition to the tasks which will have to be undertaken by others, such as the ore mines and the Ministry of Machine Industry. Based on this, the factory will, in future, give out specific assignments showing who should do what and within what time. The State Planning Commission, the ministry and the management bureau must also draw up a plan which indicates in detail which enterprise should be assigned to what task, what each one must produce and supply and by what date. After clarifying what should be done by the factory and others and 61 === [PDF page 70] === giving assignments in this way, their implementation must always be inspected and supervised. This should be done by the Secretariat of the Cabinet and the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Metal Industry and the management bureau as well as the Heavy Industry Department under the Party Central Committee and the heavy industry department under the provincial Party committee. Inspection and control do not require many people. They can be done by some officials from the higher organs going down to the factory and finding out how things are going on there and also by officials of the factory going to the higher authorities and reporting on the situation. Inspection and control should be carried out regularly on a planned basis and the results must always be summarized every month and again every quarter. The quarterly review should not be conducted at the end of the given quarter. It should be done after implementing two months of the quarterly plan at the most. Only then is it possible to correct the work at the factory before problems develop and to bring others to account in time when they have failed to complete their assignments and make sure that they carry them out. Furthermore, large numbers of people from the ministry or the management bureau should go to the factory twice a year to check on the implementation of the plan for the first and second halves of the year and to take measures to solve any difficult problems. It would also be a good idea to have preliminary discussions about the plan for the following year with the factory officials when you are assessing the fulfilment of the plan for the first half of the year. 2) ON IMPLEMENTING THE PARTY’S POLICY OF CARRYING OUT LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION AND MEDIUM AND SMALL-SCALE PRODUCTION IN PARALLEL As we repeatedly emphasize, it is impossible to scale the heights in 62 === [PDF page 71] === a short time by relying on large-scale production alone. We have to undertake medium and small-scale production as well as large-scale production. This is an important policy to which our Party consistently adheres in economic construction. We have been very successful in the production of consumer goods by developing medium and small-scale local industries as well as large-scale industry. Had we concentrated on large-scale centrally-run industries from the start we would not have been able to boost the production of consumer goods at an early date nor meet the people’s rapidly increasing demand. The Party Central Committee held a plenary meeting in 1958 and put forward the task for every city and county to build at least one local industry factory and increase the production of consumer goods in a nationwide movement by making use of all resources. Following this plenary meeting a great change has taken place in the production of consumer goods. In a short time we have built an average of ten local industry factories in every city and county and they are now producing various essential commodities and foodstuffs in large quantities. Extensive development of medium and small-scale local industries has many advantages. Because we built local industry factories we could make rational use of various raw materials and of materials which were not being used as well as family members who were unemployed in all localities, and we were able to produce a large quantity of mass consumption goods without much state investment. As all the housewives began to work at the factories they were educated in working-class ideology and the per-household income of the working people increased. In this way, developing local industries is very beneficial, both to the state and to the working people. Needless to say, in the beginning the quality of the products made at the local industry factories was not high. However, what mattered then was not the quality of the products but their quantity. We had no pots and kettles to cook rice and were short of rice bowls. Under these circumstances, it was important to provide the quantity of products first. At the moment we are progressing in the direction of improving 63 === [PDF page 72] === quality by gradually mechanizing production processes and introducing advanced work methods at these factories. Foreign guests who visit our country from Asian and African countries often ask us where Korea obtains the funds with which to keep building large factories and cultural establishments. Then I tell them of our experience gained in the economical use of funds by developing local industries extensively and so attaining self-sufficiency in consumer goods without buying them from other countries. If we, who were in a backward state, had not built medium and small-scale local factories which could be done easily, and had relied only on large light industry factories which require a large sum of funds, we would not have been able to satisfy the demands of the working people for consumer goods in a short time nor would we have been able to divert much funds to the development of heavy industry or culture. Now the experience of our country in developing local industries and building an independent national economy evokes sympathy from many Asian and African peoples. In heavy industry it is also necessary to carry out medium and small-scale production as well as large-scale production. Many years ago the Party Central Committee told officials in the chemical industry to build many medium and small chemical factories instead of thinking only about large ones. If you cannot afford to obtain up-to-date chemical equipment, you have to procure some kettles or simple implements and make dyestuffs or paints even though you might have to use dippers for the purpose. This is the way to solve the problem of improving the quality of consumer goods quickly. However, officials in this field are not so willing to undertake small things because they have got into the habit of doing big things only. They are very mistaken. The same is true in the coal mines at the moment. At its Fourth Congress our Party stressed the need to open up many large coal mines which have rich deposits and great prospects of development. This does not mean, however, that we should abandon medium and small coal mines. 64 === [PDF page 73] === On many occasions the Party Central Committee summoned coal-mining industry officials and stressed the need to develop many medium and small coal mines as well as large ones. But they have been uninterested in these mines, always thinking only about large ones. They have even abandoned all those medium and small coal mines which they had been exploiting. As a result, they do not achieve their production targets although these are well within their power. In the iron industry, too, you should also build small blast furnaces instead of trying to construct only large ones. At the moment this sector does not use such small smelting furnaces which are quite fit for use if only they could be repaired. You should not do so. We should not ignore small blast furnaces. It is quite possible to produce some 50,000 tons of pig iron from such a furnace if good results are achieved. In this way two small furnaces will produce 100,000 tons of pig iron and already you have 200,000 tons from four of them. Some comrades think only of building immense furnaces and fine factories with up-to-date equipment. They should discard such thinking. Of course, in the future we shall have to build many large furnaces and raise the quality of steel but, at the moment, it is essential to attain the production goals of pig iron and steel first by promoting medium and small-scale production. You should not discard or disregard even small rolling equipment. You will be able to turn out rolled steel if you erect a building free from leaks and install a small rolling mill there. The local industry factories which we built were not worthy of the name at the outset. At that time I went to Kaechon County and found that a few wives of the county Party committee officials were working at two hand looms installed in a parlour in a detached house which bore the signboard “Textile Mill”. The county Party chairman who accompanied us there, seemed to be somewhat confused for fear that we would reprove him. But we encouraged them saying that they were doing a very laudable thing. One’s stomach is not completely filled by the first spoonful. It will do if we start the mill in this way, accumulate funds and gradually develop it into a large factory. 65 === [PDF page 74] === We visited Mundok County, Anju County and many other places. At the outset all the local industry factories were run like this. However, those factories have now turned into fine ones. Of course we do not mean that all of them have become modern ones. The technical equipment of many local industry factories is still below standard and the quality of their products is poor. However, if we direct our efforts to building up the quality of their equipment, all of them will become modernized in due course. In heavy industry we should, for the time being, also attempt small things side by side with big ones, and gradually equip them with up-to-date techniques. 3) ON PROMOTING THE TECHNICAL REVOLUTION Freed from the oppression and exploitation of landlords and capitalists, all the people in the northern half of Korea are now not only leading a free life, but their problems of food, clothing and housing have been basically solved. In the past our working people had to worry about supper after taking their breakfast and be concerned about tomorrow after living out today. But now they need not worry about such things. However, this is not enough. We communists should strive to provide a better life for the people freed from exploitation and oppression and emancipate them from hard and difficult work. If we are to carry out the honourable task which faces us, we must complete the technical revolution. This is the only way to develop the country’s productive forces quickly and manufacture more products to make the people’s life better. The technical revolution is a very important task on which our progress depends. For this reason the Fourth Congress of our Party declared the technical revolution to be the main task of the Seven-Year Plan. Notwithstanding this, some comrades still fail to understand fully that the technical revolution is an important way of further promoting 66 === [PDF page 75] === our revolution. These people are complacent because exploitation and oppression have been done away with and the problems of food, clothing and housing for the people have been mainly solved. They take an impassive view of the technical revolution. With such easygoing thinking we shall not be able to continue the revolution. We have a lot of things to do. We still have a long way to go to make our people’s life affluent. Our country’s population growth rate is very high. Many children have been born recently, but the number of deaths has markedly decreased in comparison with former days. In the past people wanted to die early because their life was unbearable but now everyone wants to live for even one more day in this good world. This is quite natural. We have to provide a prosperous life for all the people whose number increases year after year. We should also do a great deal to free working people from difficult and hard jobs. In the metal industry alone, in many places people are still involved in work where they are affected by the heat. The feeding of metallic raw material should be mechanized to free the workers from this exhausting labour. In country areas farmers often still carry loads on their heads or their backs. Hard toil can be found more or less everywhere. We must mechanize all kinds of work as soon as possible to make the work of the people much easier and more efficient. We should turn out more products to rescue and assist the ill-clad and hungry people of the southern half of the country as early as possible. The US imperialists who are occupying south Korea are now deteriorating. They and their stooge, the Park Chung Hee clique, are making vicious attempts to repress and deceive the people of south Korea, but they will never be able to tame their fighting spirit. The patriotic struggle of the south Korean people is mounting day by day. Some time ago the US imperialists and the Park Chung Hee clique fabricated the “case of the People’s Revolutionary Party” in their attempt to arrest and imprison the leaders of the June 3 Movement and inflict severe punishment upon them. However, lawyers as well as 67 === [PDF page 76] === broad sections of the masses in south Korea were opposed to this, and even the puppet public prosecutors refused to take part in trumping up charges. This shows that an increasing number of intellectuals in south Korea sympathizes with the patriotic people. Numerous patriots are now confined in south Korean prisons at the hands of the US imperialists and their stooges. However, they are not in the least discouraged but believe that they will surely be freed to meet us. In order to liberate south Korea as soon as possible and help our brothers there, we have to forge ahead with the technical revolution and steadily increase the economic might of the country. We must show the south Korean people the happy life lived by the people in the north and the superiority of the socialist system and so inspire their struggle still more. We should also help the peoples of many countries fighting against imperialism. Today the international position of the US imperialists is deteriorating. At the moment an increasing number of countries is vilifying and opposing the Americans. In Asia those countries which advocate neutralism are also opposed to US imperialism. In Africa and Latin America peoples of many countries are also fighting bravely against the Americans. Peoples of many Asian, African and Latin-American countries who are fighting against imperialism ask us to help them. We must do everything possible to give them assistance. We must carry out not only the Korean revolution, but also the world revolution. It is the common duty of communists to defeat the imperialists throughout the world and provide a good life for all peoples. In order to accelerate socialist construction and the country’s peaceful reunification and contribute to the world revolution, we have to go ahead energetically with the technical revolution and further strengthen the economic might of the country instead of idly marking time. The technical revolution is not at all an easy proposition for our 68 === [PDF page 77] === country. In the past it lagged far behind other countries technically. It is 300 years since England carried out the industrial revolution, and nearly a century ago Japan started to introduce modern technology. It is therefore impossible for us to catch up with the technical level of the advanced countries completely in a few years. However, we should not think that we shall also need 100 or 300 years to acquire a high level of modern technology just because our industry has a short history. We must work hard to catch up with the technical level of the advanced countries quickly. We should not be complacent because visitors from newly independent Asian and African countries speak highly of the progress of our industry. It is natural for people of those countries which have almost no big factories to praise us. Visitors to our country from the capitalist countries which have advanced technology are moved to admiration at the fact that we have risen from the debris to what we see today, but they do not say that our technical level is high. It is true that our socialist system is superior, but we are still lagging behind as far as technology is concerned. At the moment our technicians cannot even make firebricks properly. The firebricks made in other countries ensure that the life span of the furnace will be 500 to 600 firings, but ours barely manage to do 170 firings. In cement production we are unable to make more use of the kiln because of the poor quality of the firebricks. It is said that in other countries the firebricks stand in the kiln for six months or a year, but ours have to be replaced after only a month’s use. This is not at all because our people are inferior to others in talent. As a matter of fact, we have a history of culture which is no worse than that of others. Our country began to lag behind other countries because in the days of the Ri dynasty the rulers idled away their time over wine day and night, but before then it was more advanced than others. Our ancestors did many things which other nationalities could not do. Therefore, there is no reason why we should lag behind others in socialist construction now. The sole reason why we are now failing even to make proper firebricks is that our technicians are not sincere 69 === [PDF page 78] === and do not work strenuously enough and senior officials neglect organizational work. The technical revolution is not making good progress at the Hwanghae Iron Works. At this factory you did not increase labour productivity through the technical revolution, but tried to produce more by increasing the number of workers. As a result, their number is continually increasing. At present we are short of manpower. In the future, too, we will not be able to solve this problem unless the technical revolution is carried out. The Hwanghae Iron Works has favourable conditions for doing this. It has talented technicians with a wealth of experience as well as a large number of skilled workers. What matters is that the workers and technicians at this factory should try hard to implement the task of the technical revolution set out by the Party. It is true that we have so far achieved great success in technological development. We have already succeeded in the gasification of anthracite, and it has become possible to obtain a large quantity of oxygen easily in the future. This is a very good thing. However, we will have to do many more things if we are to accomplish the technical revolution. Before doing anything else we have to improve scientific research work. Not a single technological problem can be solved properly without studying science. The most important task confronting you in scientific research is to solve the problem of domestic fuel by every possible means. We envisage attaining the production goal of 2.2 million tons of steel by the end of the Seven-Year Plan, but after the fulfilment of this plan a call will be made for the production of four to five million tons of steel. Only when we have at least this amount of steel will we be able to increase the might of the country. To produce five million tons of steel we need nearly 10 million tons of coking coal. Where can we get this amount? It is not such a simple matter to buy so much coking coal from other countries. Accordingly we have to develop the metallurgical industry drawing on supplies of 70 === [PDF page 79] === domestic fuel. We should not deplore the lack of coking coal but must study methods of producing iron by using anthracite which is abundant in our country. Not only specialists but all the workers and technicians of the factory should take part in scientific research. Everyone should study with the great enthusiasm and eagerly learn technology. You should discard any idea of going on working as before but ought always to think of how you can produce various classes of steel in greater quantities with domestic fuel and how you can make your work easier and economize on manpower. To this end all the workers and technicians must make an active contribution to the technical revolution. It will be successfully implemented if all the workers and technicians learn technology and devote all their knowledge and talent to it. To develop scientific research it is also necessary for the relevant state organs to build laboratories or experimental factories and make adequate provision for research. 4) ON INTENSIFYING POLITICAL WORK AMONG THE WORKING PEOPLE The most important thing in economic construction is to do effective work with people, that is, with the producer masses. For this reason, I said that the textbook on industrial administration should give priority to work with people. After an accurate plan has been formulated and meticulous organizational measures have been taken for its implementation, its fulfilment depends entirely on whether or not the working people strive with great revolutionary enthusiasm to carry out Party policy. According to the report of the manager, production has been rapidly increasing since the day we started to guide the work of the factory. It is good that this is happening while the guidance group members are working with you, and it is natural that it should do so. However, the 71 === [PDF page 80] === Premier or guidance group members from the central authorities cannot spend all their time only at the Hwanghae Iron Works. That is why it is important that the factory itself should raise the revolutionary spirit of the workers. To this end Party work, political work, should be increased among the working people. This factory, however, has neglected this work so far. In the past the ministries did not implement the Taean system nor did they give precedence to political work in their guidance of the factory. Some officials at the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries advocated technical supremacy, claiming “What is the use of a technician learning politics? Am I going to become a politician?” When officials visited the factory they only supervised and put pressure on the people there instead of helping them overcome their weak points. The officials of the State Construction Commission also neglected political work among the working people. It is said that last year this commission gave guidance to this factory on more than 80 occasions and its chairman himself visited it eight times. But the construction project of the Hwanghae Iron Works did not proceed as scheduled. This is because the officials of the State Construction Commission are incapable of giving technical guidance and also because they neglected political work among the technicians and workers in an effort to solve the difficult problems. At present we are worrying about coal while sitting on a pile of coal. This is mainly because senior officials of the Ministry of Electricity and Coal Industries did not carry out political and organizational work to implement Party policy while showing “individual heroism”. This ministry shelved the joint decision of the Party and the Cabinet on developing the coal industry for five months. They neither took measures for its implementation nor advised their subordinates. They insisted that they alone were right and paid no heed to the advice of others or to the voice of the masses. It is natural, therefore, that the 72 === [PDF page 81] === work of this ministry does not go smoothly. Those who think that they alone are wise and ignore the masses and do not rely on them are doomed to failure. We should learn a lesson from the work of the Ministry of Electricity and Coal Industries and strengthen political work among the working people. Above all, it is important to give them a clear understanding of the position and role which the Hwanghae Iron Works occupies in the development of the national economy and stir them up to carry out the plan. As we said when we reconstructed the furnace immediately after the war, the Hwanghae Iron Works is “Height 1211” in the socialist economic construction of our country. As everyone knows, during the late Fatherland Liberation War Height 1211 was a very important strategic position. If we failed to defend it the enemy would press forward to the Wonsan line and we would have to retreat a long way. And so we called upon the brave men of the People’s Army to defend Height 1211 at all costs. In response to the call of the Party Central Committee our intrepid soldiers and officers defended this height with their blood. This enabled us to beat back the enemy invasion and gain a victory. Today in our economic construction the Hwanghae Iron Works holds as important a place as that of “Height 1211” during the Fatherland Liberation War. Only when the works properly implements its production plan for steel, pig iron and steel products, will large quantities of machines be turned out, more mines developed, the mechanization of the rural economy expedited and construction projects carried out more quickly. Whether this iron works does its work well or not greatly influences other branches of the national economy. That is why you must not fail to fulfil the honourable task facing the iron works, overcoming all difficulties and obstacles just as the brave fighters of the People’s Army defended Height 1211 with their blood. Some time ago I called together writers and artists and told them that for the education of the masses it would be a good thing to create 73 === [PDF page 82] === in large numbers not only works which depict the anti-Japanese guerrillas but also those about the revolutionary fighters who fought heroically during the Fatherland Liberation War. If you recall how your revolutionary forerunners fought whenever you face difficulties and become slack and feel weary, your revolutionary spirit will revive and you will be quite able to face any difficulties. Not only Party organizations including the factory Party committee, the branch Party committees and the cell committees but all the trade union, LSWY and Women’s Union organizations should intensify education among the working people so that they will model themselves on the fighting spirit of the revolutionary vanguard and the mass heroism of the brave men of Height 1211. As stipulated in the Party Rules, every Party member should do Party work. All Party members ought to conduct this kind of instruction among the working people. Whenever the soldiers were hungry and exhausted during the armed struggle against Japanese imperialism, we explained to them that, overcoming all adversities, they should fight for the sake of the country and the people. Then they would pluck up courage again and advance, singing songs and oblivious of hunger. During the Fatherland Liberation War we repulsed the armed invasion of US imperialism, the ringleader of international reaction, and achieved victory because our people fought bravely with great patriotic zeal to defend the honour of their country. This is also true of socialist construction. If Party organizations were to educate all the working people to fight for the sake of the country and the people under any circumstances, they would easily be able to implement any difficult plan and continuously advance our socialist construction at a fast rate. Whenever they are confronted with difficulties, the Songnim City Party Committee and the Party Committee of the Hwanghae Iron Works should first go among the masses to conduct political work and consult them. Then the enthusiasm of the masses will grow and the techniques, materials and methods to solve the difficult problems will be found. 74 === [PDF page 83] === I should like to tell you once again how we overcame the obstacles created in 1956. At that time the internal and external situation was very complicated. Everywhere in the world the US-led imperialists were carrying on widespread destructive activities against communism and Syngman Rhee was threatening to invade the northern half of Korea. The great power chauvinists put pressure upon us and the factional elements within the Party who were in league with them showed their hands. To make matters worse, we were short of food and clothing and had many difficulties in economic construction. So that we could face this grave crisis, the Party Central Committee held a plenary meeting in December 1956. The plenary meeting stressed the need to destroy the insidious manoeuvrings of our internal and external enemies absolutely and carry out the Five-Year Plan at all costs even if we had to tighten our belts. Because of the adversities created within and without the country in those days it was very difficult to implement the ambitious Five-Year Plan. However, the Party believed in our working class and people and was firmly convinced that the plan would be quite practicable. Because we believed in the people and had fought with them in the past we were able to win the 15-year long arduous anti-Japanese armed struggle and the three-year long fierce war against the US imperialists and their lackeys after liberation. It was natural that our Party, which is a vanguard detachment of the working class and fights for the people, should have had faith in the working class and the people and tried to overcome the crisis by relying on them. Accordingly, members of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee visited factories to tell the workers what had been discussed at the plenary meeting and to discuss with them very seriously the measures needed to surmount our difficulties. At that time I went to the Kangson Steel Plant. Its greatest difficulty was the capacity of the blooming shop. I told the workers about the difficult situation of the country and called upon them to increase the capacity of the shop. 75 === [PDF page 84] === In response to the Party’s call the workers of this plant made strenuous efforts and thereby turned out 120,000 tons of rolled steel from their blooming mill, greatly exceeding its rated capacity of 60,000 tons. If we had not conducted political work among the masses this success would have been inconceivable. Whenever we confront hardships in implementing the plan we should go among the masses to conduct political work more vigorously and triumph over those difficulties by inspiring their revolutionary enthusiasm and enlisting their knowledge. 5) ON IMPROVING SUPPLY SERVICES Every time I have come to the Hwanghae Iron Works, I have stressed the supply services. However, we cannot yet say that the supply services for the workers here are satisfactory. It is true that the sidelines undertaken by the factory itself are all right. But the city Party and people’s committees are failing in their work. At this meeting many criticisms have been made about the work of these committees, and they seem to be reasonable. The officials of the city Party and people’s committees should accept the criticisms, thoroughly examine their work and take measures to remedy their defects. The people’s committee is not an organ to order the people about, but one which should serve them. Officials of the people’s committee should be faithful servants of the people. To be a landlord’s farm hand is degrading but to be a faithful servant of the people is most honourable. The Songnim City People’s Committee should provide reliable services, particularly for the workers of the Hwanghae Iron Works and their families. They should provide the workers with subsidiary foodstuffs at the right time, repair their houses well and create conditions so that they will be able to relax when they come home after the day’s work. Furthermore, they should provide good education for the children of the workers and create conditions for 76 === [PDF page 85] === their wives to take up employment. In addition there are, of course, many more things the city Party and people’s committees should do for the workers at the iron works and their families. However, their officials were indifferent to the supply services for the workers of the Hwanghae Iron Works, behaving as though they had nothing to do with this factory. In future the relevant departments of the Party Central Committee and the North Hwanghae Provincial Party Committee must correct the wrong work style of the officials of the Songnim City Party and People’s Committees and give them explicit help so that they will provide better service for these workers. First of all the workers must be provided with sufficient subsidiary foodstuffs. Our per-capita grain output is no less than that of other countries, but we consume much more grain than they do. At the moment our country produces 2.5-2.6 million tons of rice in addition to other grains. If we produce more subsidiary foodstuffs, we can live on rice alone. Nevertheless, our officials do not take specific measures for the production of secondary food items, but just issue general appeals. If this is the case we shall not be able to improve the diet of the working people. Provided you organize work properly, you will be able to produce a sufficient amount of secondary foodstuffs. You can organize housewives’ workteams for their production. You would also be able to raise many pigs and chickens by planting pumpkins and such crops on the soil which the farmers find difficult to cultivate. Songnim will also be able to breed fish. To provide satisfactory supply services for the workers you should give active help to nearby stock farms or cooperative farms and make good use of them. This factory has favourable conditions for this. It can obtain a great deal of manure and make use of the liquid ammonia deriving from the chemical shop. If these are supplied to the cooperative farms the farmers will be able to increase the per-hectare crop yields 77 === [PDF page 86] === considerably and improve supplies for factory workers. This factory also has a large number of housewives who can take up employment. It is said that there are now altogether 4,000 housewives and that more than 2,800 of them can work either at the cooperative farms or the stock farms. What matters is to create the conditions for them to work there. It would be a good idea to use buses for those who have to travel a long way. Even if the housewives cannot do much work at the cooperative farms, that is all right. It will be sufficient if they are made to do whatever work they can, either eight hours or six. This will enable them to lead a collective life and increase their income and it will give a great deal of assistance to the cooperative farms. And if the cooperative farms produce more crops, the supply of fodder for domestic animals will be increased and, accordingly, it will be possible to raise many more domestic animals. Then the workers will be able to have more meat. The provincial-level organs and trade networks should supply large quantities of milk and eggs and other subsidiary foodstuffs to the workers whose job involves working in high temperatures as well as to the workers in mineral and coal mines. Work should be organized efficiently so that these workers can always be supplied with bean curds and oil. The iron works should provide its own vegetables. It can cultivate them quite easily and increase per-hectare yields because it has fertile soil, plenty of manure and irrigation water. The rural economy committee of the province should increase its efforts to produce vegetables for workers. The workers of the Hwanghae Iron Works are short of houses. You should, therefore, build more of them and you must not increase the population of Songnim. And, as far as possible, those who have nothing to do with the iron works should be sent to other areas. It will be a good thing to have public service establishments such as shops and restaurants managed, wherever this can be done, by the dependents of the employees of this factory or by the aged and infirm who cannot 78 === [PDF page 87] === do heavy work instead of bringing in people from somewhere else for the purpose. As for the heating which was widely discussed in your speeches, it is advisable to give priority to central heating. It is inconceivable that the working class who are creating a new world should be unable to solve the heating problem. Because you have a large factory and many technicians, this is well within your power if only you go about it properly. You should introduce central heating and cook meals on kerosene stoves. Then the firewood problem will be solved. You should keep the town and houses clean and build up a life based on culture. I have already told you about this on many occasions, but it has not yet been satisfactorily dealt with. Last evening we dropped in at the workers’ dormitory and also looked round some apartment houses. We inspected the so-called exemplary apartment. To our mind it is not yet clean. Why cannot we live tidily under the present circumstances? You should discard the outdated habits of the old days when you used to live in a disorganized way and keep the houses and streets neat and tidy and maintain the roads, rivers and mountains properly. The city Party and people’s committees should pay considerable attention to this. Because the supply services are backward, I had intended on this occasion to map out ten major tasks for this sector personally, but I have not done so. Therefore, you had better draw them up yourselves through full discussion with the officials of the city people’s committee and work hard for their implementation. In this way you ought to bring about definite improvements in the supply services. I firmly believe that in response to the decision of the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee you will succeed in accomplishing the tasks entrusted to the Hwanghae Iron Works by working devotedly under the militant slogans “Every effort for the attainment of the steel production goal!” and “Let us firmly defend Height 1211!” 79 === [PDF page 88] === ON BRINGING ABOUT INNOVATIONS IN IRON ORE PRODUCTION Speech at the Party Committee Meeting of the Unnyul Mine January 22, 1965 A meeting of the Party committee of this mine has been going on for a few days and today different branches of the mine have held consultative meetings on various technical problems. At these Party meetings and consultative meetings many good suggestions were put forward. I think that if these meetings go on for some time longer, many more useful suggestions will be made. There is not the slightest doubt that the current guidance method is superior to the previous one. I believe that through the guidance we have given you on this occasion you have got a great deal of help for improving your work in future–because it enabled you to understand clearly the causes of the shortcomings revealed in your work and the ways to rectify them. The employees of the Unnyul Mine have developed their small mine into the big one we see today by overcoming many difficulties. And last year they carried out their main production plan successfully. When the mine was in danger because of floods all the blue- and white-collar workers, as well as their families, came out to fight heroically, protecting the mine admirably. In addition, the workers of the prospecting corps made strenuous efforts to obtain a large deposit of iron. On behalf of the Party Central Committee, I should like to 80 === [PDF page 89] === thank all the Party members, non-office and office workers and the workers of the prospecting corps, who are working devotedly to turn this mine into a major iron ore production centre in our country. You have done a great deal of work so far. But you have many more and difficult things to do from now on. Therefore, you should never rest on your laurels. If you do not redouble your efforts in comparison with the past, you will not be able to attain the fighting goal set by the Party. As the international situation became tense, we had to devote a great deal of effort to building up defences during the last few years. The US imperialists created the Caribbean crisis against the Cuban people and provoked the Gulf of Bac Bo incident for the purpose of extending their war of aggression in South Viet Nam into North Viet Nam. They are now perpetrating more undisguised aggression in Southeast Asia and many other parts of the world. This situation compelled us to mobilize quantities of materials, funds and young and middle-aged people as a measure to increase the production of munitions and to strengthen defence power. Since we have so far reinforced the whole country and prepared enough weapons to arm all our people, we will be able to direct greater efforts to production and construction projects from now on. It will be even more difficult to carry out the tasks of the Seven-Year Plan in the remaining period, because this plan was originally a tough one and, what is more, we devoted our main efforts to building our defences for the past few years. We have to do the work planned for five years in three years and undertake most construction projects envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan in a matter of two years–this year and next year. Unless we make strenuous efforts and work efficiently, we will not be able to attain our major goals as set forth by the Party at its Fourth Congress. The Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee sharply criticized cadres for their negligence in making technical innovations, for their indifference to manpower administration and for their failure to implement the Taean work system thoroughly, 81 === [PDF page 90] === intoxicated as they were with success and inclined to complacency. In a nutshell, it was a criticism of the failure to make energetic efforts to attain the goals of the Seven-Year Plan in keeping with the demands of the prevailing situation. In support of the decision of the recent plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee, all Party members and working people should continue to advance bravely to reach the lofty heights of the Seven-Year Plan and to carry out the ten major tasks set out by the Party. The Fourth Congress of our Party gave the mining workers and steel producers a task of producing 2.2 to 2.5 million tons of steel during the period of the Seven-Year Plan. You must not fail to carry out this task, no matter what the cost, because it was decided upon on behalf of our 1.3 million Party members. There is no need to make a long explanation about the great importance of steel production in developing the national economy and increasing the economic power of the country. Steel is essential for the production of heavy industrial goods such as lorries, tractors, generators, locomotives and machine tools, for the mechanization, chemicalization and electrification of the rural economy, and also for the development of light industry. It goes without saying that without steel we can neither produce automatic rifles, machine guns, guns, tanks and other weapons, nor increase our defence power. So it is not without reason that a country’s economic power is measured according to the amount of steel it produces. In August 1962, when the problem of attaining the steel production goal was being discussed at the Party Committee of the Hwanghae Iron Works, I told the comrades there that in our country the Hwanghae Iron Works can be likened to “Height 1211” in the Fatherland Liberation War. During that war Height 1211 had a very great strategic importance. If we had failed to hold this height at that time there was the danger of our being deprived of a large area of land as well as Mt. Kumgang by the enemy. We therefore did our best to hold on to it. 82 === [PDF page 91] === The Hwanghae Iron Works must turn out 1,000,000 tons of pig iron and 800,000 tons of steel in 1967. Implementation of this task is no less an important and difficult battle than the defence of Height 1211 in the war. The efforts of the workers of that works alone are not enough to ensure success in this battle. This requires the active support of all branches related to the Hwanghae Iron Works. Just as the whole country supported the battle on Height 1211, so we have to back the production efforts of the steel workers in many ways. The most important thing for the production of pig iron and steel is to provide enough iron ore. During the war the soldiers on Height 1211 said that they would be happy if they could use as many shells as they wanted, and now the smelters of the Hwanghae Iron Works say that they would wish for nothing more than to have a large reserve stock of iron ore. The workers of the mining industry must effect a huge increase in iron ore production, the first process of steel production, so as to supply the iron works with greater quantities of high-quality ore. In supplying the Hwanghae Iron Works, the Unnyul Mine is entrusted with a particularly heavy task. This mine should extract 700,000 tons of iron ore this year, and should annually mine 1,000,000 tons from next year and 1,200,000 to 1,500,000 tons after the Seven-Year Plan period. This is, of course, a very difficult task for this mine, for it mined only 390,000 tons last year. The Hasong and Jaeryong Mines must make improvements in iron ore production. The Hasong Mine should extract 330,000 tons this year and more than 500,000 tons annually from next year. Though it has rather unsuitable mining conditions, the Jaeryong Mine must produce 350,000 tons of iron ore this year. The Tokhyon Mine will have to produce over 100,000 tons of concentrate every year, and the Kaechon Mine must also increase its iron ore production. In the light of both its present output and its future prospect, the Unnyul Mine is the most important of all the mines located in the western area of our country. This year’s output of iron ore envisaged for this mine exceeds the total amount of the Hasong and Jaeryong 83 === [PDF page 92] === Mines. The data which have been obtained so far show that this mine’s iron ore deposits are 100 million tons; in future they may amount to 500 million tons. If it is accepted that its deposits are 100 million tons, this amount is sufficient to last for 100 years if we mine one million tons each year. And even if the annual rate of extraction is two million tons, this amount is enough to last 50 years. Furthermore, the location of this mine is convenient for shipping ore to the iron works. The distance between here and the Hwanghae Iron Works is only 40 miles along the waterway. We can say it is within a hailing distance if we take into consideration the fact that the Japanese ship iron ore from Brazil. We must concentrate great efforts on the Unnyul Mine which has a great future and favourable transport conditions so that we can turn it into a powerful centre for the production of iron ore–second only to the Musan Mine in our country. To this end we should send many more scientists and technicians in the prospecting and mining sectors to this mine to carry out a thorough survey first of all. On our return, we are going to submit a report on this matter to the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee and the Cabinet and take active measures to develop the Unnyul Mine on a large scale. At the Party meeting which has already lasted some days, you made a firm resolve to carry out the assignment for iron ore production entrusted to your mine. Today I consulted the comrades from the Hasong and Jaeryong Mines and they also resolved to do so, although their planned targets are a little difficult for them. I am very satisfied with this. I think that the tasks given to all the mines are difficult, but those assigned to the Unnyul Mine in particular are more difficult. The Hasong Mine, which has a long history as well as better equipment and a better repair base than this mine has, has been entrusted with the task of producing 500,000 tons; but your mine, which has a short history and poor technical foundations and which began to increase production only recently, has been given the task of producing 700,000 tons. This 84 === [PDF page 93] === is really a difficult project. It could not be carried out without tremendous effort. We must give generous assistance in various ways to the Unnyul Mine which has to make tremendous efforts under difficult conditions. At present quite a few officials from the national bodies are staying at the mine. They should take positive measures to help it with the same enthusiasm with which they are helping the Hwanghae Iron Works. The Party Central Committee will also discuss this matter and take the necessary measures in future. Now I should like to touch on some problems which have to be solved in the Unnyul Mine in order to carry out this year’s plan as well as the assignment of the Seven-Year Plan. First, the important thing is to strengthen the mine’s personnel. Only when the ranks are strong can one be victorious in battle. Therefore, if you are to succeed in your strenuous endeavours, you should first consolidate your ranks. In the Fatherland Liberation War all the units which fought well had well-organized troops. The same is true in economic construction because it is also a kind of battle. In order to fulfil its difficult fighting task successfully, the Unnyul Mine should also build up its ranks firmly as a first priority. This mine has sound Party core elements, the composition of its Party committee is good and the spirit of its workers is high. However, it can hardly be said that the ranks of this mine are solid. Class awareness of the workers is still weak. The survival of old habits and ideas which they acquired while working in gold mines or lumber camps in the past still exists widely among workers. I was told that some of them get very drunk, get into fights and do not keep their houses clean. I have found that your shop sells an average of 40 litres of liquor per day. From this figure, I can deduce that at least 200 people drink every day. As you listen to me you may be displeased with me for blaming you for drinking a little liquor. If you think so you are mistaken. I do not criticize you just for drinking liquor, but you must drink moderately. 85 === [PDF page 94] === To excavate ore haphazardly during the daytime and then become debauched after drinking in the evening–this is a bad habit which you acquired while working under the whip of capitalists in the past. Our workers who have become masters of the country have no time for drinking, debauchery and frivolity. When they come home after finishing the day’s work, they should study, instruct their children and think always of how they can raise production. You, on the contrary, make a fuss about liquor being out of stock at the shop, instead of giving thought to how you can maintain equipment in good condition, how you can improve heading excavation and how you can improve the work of your mine. Worse still, you are not ashamed of working only four hours a day even under the favourable conditions of open-cut mining. All these show a lack of Party spirit and a weak class spirit. The workers do not try to raise their technical expertise and fail to keep equipment in good condition. This is attributable to the fact that they have not acquired the demeanour of the revolutionary working class. Because of this the most important task facing the Party committee of the mine is to consolidate Party organizations firmly and build the ranks of workers on a sound basis. Of course, correct planning is also important. However, this alone is not enough to solve every problem. Without strengthening the working-class rank and file you cannot fulfil the ambitious tasks entrusted to your mine. By referring to the need to consolidate your ranks we do not mean that you should expel unsatisfactory persons. We mean that you should intensify political and ideological instruction among the Party members and other workers so that all of them have the qualities of socialist builders and adopt a firm attitude as regards the Party and class. After this meeting, you must have serious discussions on how you can stimulate the Party spirit of the members and raise the class awareness of the workers, and how you can get the entire collective to acquire the demeanour of socialist builders and to work devotedly so as to fulfil the tasks set them by the Party. Party members ought to take the lead in political and ideological 86 === [PDF page 95] === work. While stimulating their own Party spirit, they should mix with the masses and stir the fighting spirit of the working class. The members of the League of Socialist Working Youth should work hard to arm themselves with the ideology of the Party, the ideology of the working class, as befitting the reserves of the Party; the members of the Women’s Union should try to acquire a noble demeanour as wives of the workers and as advanced women workers. The Party committee and cells of the mine must do their best to stimulate the Party spirit of the members even further, consolidate the Party ranks and raise workers’ ideological levels so as to convert the whole collective of the mine into a brave and united combat detachment. Party organizations must determinedly combat the outdated ideas which still linger among the workers and, at the same time, employ every means of raising them steadily to acquire a high level of technical expertise. The working class can claim to be a really advanced class only when it has not only a high level of political awareness, but also gives the lead in production and fulfils its plan successfully. All workers should take good care of equipment and keep it in good condition and should also make strenuous efforts to improve their technical expertise. A truck driver must be proficient at driving and must always think about ways of extending the life span of his truck; an excavator operator must always think of how he can use his machine for a longer time and improve its efficiency. Everyone must study, and study hard, so that they will be able to perform their responsibility with credit. Workers must completely discard their old habit of living in a happy-go-lucky fashion, a habit which they acquired under the exploitation of the capitalists in the past. Our workers today are not hired hands who are compelled to sell their labour to capitalists in order to exist. They are masters of a new society who have taken power into their own hands. Our working class should be aware that they are revolutionary fighters who strive for the people’s well-being and for the prosperity of the country. You must imitate the fighting spirit of the heroes who fought 87 === [PDF page 96] === bravely for their country and people, without fear of sacrifices in the Fatherland Liberation War. Saying that his youth was dear but the country was even dearer, Hero Ri Su Bok blocked the enemy’s gun muzzle with his body so as to ensure victory for his unit. How many of our young people shed their blood to defend our country, showing a high degree of communist spirit and patriotism! Emulating the example of these heroes, our workers must devote themselves to socialist construction and must love their collective and organization and carry out the tasks set by the Party in an indomitable fighting spirit, helping and urging each other forward. Secondly, the work of the enterprise command must be improved. The Party committee chairman, the manager, chief engineer and deputy managers are the managing staff of the undertaking. Only when they play their proper role will the enterprise be able to meet its production targets. When the commanders are not wise enough, the ranks cannot be built up and even if the ranks are built up well the battle cannot be won. Even a swift horse can gallop only when a good jockey rides it. But when an unskilled rider mounts the horse, it cannot gallop, and the rider may fall off if he makes the slightest mistake. Likewise, success in the operations of an enterprise following the building of its ranks depends entirely on the role of the managing staff. What is of the greatest importance in raising the role of the managing staff of the enterprise is to ensure collective guidance by its Party committee. This committee must not take over administrative work, but must carry out its function of controlling, and do political work, work with people. The Party committee’s discharge of its controlling duties means that by enlisting collective knowledge it gives a correct general direction for the activities of the enterprise which is geared to the implementation of Party policy, and that it always gives guidance to and exercises control over its implementation. Meanwhile, the Party committee should work properly with people 88 === [PDF page 97] === and especially with cadres. Building up the ranks of technical and administrative cadres of the enterprise, educating them at all times and inculcating them with a higher sense of responsibility–these are very important aspects of the work with people. At the same time, the Party committee should work among the Party members and the masses efficiently and enlist all of them in the management of the enterprise so that it can be operated by the collective efforts and knowledge of the broad masses rather than by the limited intelligence of a few individuals. To this end, the Party committee should closely mix with the Party members and the masses, and should listen to the opinions of technicians, workers, members of the League of Socialist Working Youth and of the Women’s Union, and must also organize work efficiently so as to give effect to their good suggestions without delay. That political work is vital in settling every problem is the most important conclusion which we have reached through our experience of revolutionary work over many years. But it is not at all easy to do political work efficiently. Our experience in the anti-Japanese guerrilla struggle shows that it is easy for a commanding officer to issue a battle order, but it is not easy to do proper political work which is geared to encouraging all soldiers to carry out this order faithfully. Then how must political work be conducted? In enterprises it must be closely combined with the implementation of the immediate economic tasks. Take an example from the direction of military affairs. Suppose that the divisional or regimental Party committee has decided on mounting an attack. Then political workers should do political work, aimed at stirring up the morale of soldiers, so that they can discharge their immediate combat duty. It would be of no use to urge those soldiers, who are to go into battle immediately, to economize in provisions and other materials. Political work, information and motivation work must be conducted in such a way as to suit the particular time and place. Ordinary political work must be different from the political work which is conducted prior to a battle, and political work in factories and farming and fishing villages should each be different. 89 === [PDF page 98] === Political work in the mine should conform to actual conditions there. The Party committee of the mine should visit the work site and inform the workers of the Party’s policy on introducing the advanced mining method, taking good care of the mine’s equipment and increasing labour productivity. It must detail how they can attain their production targets, citing similar examples. Another important thing is that the manager should play a greater role. He is a vice-chairman of the Party committee and the person who is in charge of administrative affairs at the enterprise. When compared with the army, he is the equivalent of a commanding officer who issues direct orders. If the manager is to give proper production guidance he ought to know all about the affairs of the enterprise. Every day he must be informed of the technical management of the enterprise through the chief engineer, of the supply of materials through the deputy manager for supply services and of the provision of supplies through the deputy manager for welfare services, so as to know at once what problems have to be solved. Then he should visit the shop floor with a definite purpose and go into the situation there in detail. Only when the manager takes the whole work of the enterprise under his control in this way, can he properly solve its problems. If, on the contrary, he deals with problems in a haphazard way, running here and there about the shop floor, he might solve one particular problem, but in the meantime another problem might get out of hand unexpectedly and, in the long run, he would be unable to manage the enterprise on a methodical basis. The manager should inform the Party committee chairman of the important problems arising in the management of the enterprise and should run it in accordance with the plan which has been discussed and decided upon collectively at the Party committee. Once it has drawn up a plan, the committee should see whether the manager acts upon it and, at the same time, persuade him to play a greater role and should work on the Party members and the masses through Party organizations so that his orders are carried out. 90 === [PDF page 99] === At present, however, the Party committee chairmen of many enterprises have taken over administrative duties. This has resulted in their wandering about between the Party committee chairman and chief engineer with nothing to do. The Party committee should do away with this practice and devote its full attention to increasing the manager’s role in the direction of production. Furthermore, the chief engineer, the chief of staff of the enterprise, must improve the part he plays. He should properly direct the work of those departments which play the role of the general staff such as the production guidance department, the planning department, the technical department and the repair and power-supply department. However, because the chief of staff does not play his proper role the staff does not formulate accurate plans for each month, week and day, nor does it direct production in accordance with them. The staff of the factory should also work in the same way as the staff of the army. Many of you probably know how the staff in the army works because you have had military service. In planning a battle the chief of staff first analyses the scouting information and reaches a conclusion; he then examines a draft plan of operations so as to revise it, drawing on new information from the scouts. In the same way, the chief of staff at the factory should be closely acquainted with the shop floor and include in the plan detailed measures which may be necessary for ensuring smooth production. For example, the chief of staff in a mine should draw up the plan after investigating the amount of ore in each pithead and the depth of the earth to be stripped, and after considering in great detail the methods of mining and of stripping as well as the time of blasting, the location of the road to be laid, and the amount of mining equipment which will be needed to ensure the success of all these phases of the work. Just as an unexpected situation crops up in the course of a battle, so working conditions may frequently change during production processes. It is true that inefficient reconnoitering can cause a unit to meet an entirely unforeseen difficulty in its advance. But even when the reconnaissance is accurate, things may change afterwards. For 91 === [PDF page 100] === example, the bridge may be destroyed during the advance of the unit though it was all right at the time of reconnaissance. In this case, it is necessary for the engineers to rebuild it, or else make a detour. If one is to emerge victorious from a battle, one must form an idea of what measures will be taken to cope with the changing situation. Likewise, in production it is also necessary to consider changes in working conditions and keep reserves of labour and materials at all times so as to be able to solve complex problems without delay. It is quite natural that production will not go as smoothly as it should, because the staff works carelessly, instead of meeting these requirements. The staff work must be considerably improved. And so it is only when the Party committee, the manager, chief engineer and the staff have a greater role and the welfare and supply service departments have a higher sense of responsibility, that the enterprise can be operated as it should be. The Unnyul Mine has a thin layer of earth to be stripped and good-quality iron ore. In other words, it has favourable conditions for a battle. However, things are not going smoothly at the moment. This is because the headquarters does not do its own work efficiently and runs this big mine in a rule-of-thumb way without having a plan for production processes. Without decisively improving the role of the command, the mine cannot carry out the enormous task entrusted to it smoothly. If direction is to be efficient, there has to be a detailed plan as well as a plan of work to carry it out. Only then will it be possible to engage each unit of the mine in an organized way and carry out all mine work as planned. Furthermore, you must try to make better use of the working day. Not only is your output for each working hour small, but the utilization rate of your working hours is very low. The data which analyse your day’s work show that your working hours account for no more than 190 minutes. This means that you are idle for a much longer time than you are working. My talk with the comrades from the Hasong and Jaeryong Mines shows that the situation in those mines is not very different. 92 === [PDF page 101] === Low utilization rate of working hours is now common in all mines. What is the reason for this? I do not think that wastage of working hours is due to a dislike of labour on the part of workers. It is mainly because of your failure to organize production properly and provide suitable working conditions. In order to raise the utilization rate of the working day, you must first organize work properly, and that is particularly necessary at the pits. Because of the improper organization of blasting, you waste a lot of time. In the pit it is impossible to work until gas is dispersed after blasting. Therefore, if you organize blasting properly by getting the workers to have their lunch or to rest during blasting and, after blasting, to get down to their own work–mining, loading and haulage–you will be able to stop wasting working time. Furthermore, it is important to give priority to blasting over the transport of iron ore. How long the interval between blasting and transport should be must be determined in conformity with existing conditions at the mine. We cannot arbitrarily decide that blasting should take place a week or a fortnight earlier than haulage. It would be a good idea to take advantage of a break for small-scale blasting. If you map out a detailed plan for different work processes and organize blasting properly, you will be able to make much better use of the working hours. In addition, you must provide good working conditions. The waste of working hours is partly due to unsuitable working conditions. By working conditions we mean not only mining conditions but also transport routes as well as the workers’ clothing and shoes. Since the road is bad at present, trucks cannot run efficiently and, consequently, loaders frequently have to suspend work. If you level the road so that the trucks can run without delay, this alone will contribute very greatly to putting an end to the waste of working time. If the men work without padded clothes and shoes in winter they cannot stand the cold. So they have to come up from the pit to warm themselves and then go down again, and in doing so they waste time. Since the state plan is drawn up on the assumption that everyone 93 === [PDF page 102] === will work for eight hours a day, it cannot be implemented if the eight working hours are not fully utilized. Failure to work eight hours a day is a violation of the labour law. No one has the right to disregard the 480-minute workday. You should organize your work properly and provide good working conditions so that full use is made of the whole workday. At the moment this mine includes in the workday time taken for lunch and shift changes. A lot of time is wasted because of the inefficient organization of labour. In addition to this, the working day is cut for reasons of this kind. As a result, you work, in fact, no more than four hours. In the final analysis, this means that half of the workers at this mine have simply been loafing. What a great waste of labour it is! Output value per worker now is not very high in our country. The Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Party decided to increase labour productivity by introducing the technical revolution and improving labour administration. We should exert all our efforts to attain this aim. A great reserve in increasing labour productivity is to make efficient use of the working day. The Unnyul Mine produced 390,000 tons of iron ore last year. If it had made full use of the eight-hour working day by organizing labour properly it would have been well able to produce 700,000 tons with its existing work force. If we made proper use of the 480-minute workday we would be able almost to double production with the existing labour throughout the country. There is no need to say that when this aim has been achieved we shall be considerably better off than at present. When we were in need after the war, we made a tour of other countries to ask for rice and clothing. Probably aged people understand how shameful it is to beg others for rice. It is still more disgraceful to go to other countries to ask them for something. On our way back from our tour of fraternal countries, we made a firm decision to solve the problems of food and clothing by our own efforts at whatever cost. We have made strenuous efforts to this end for several years and are 94 === [PDF page 103] === now in a position to dispense with begging other countries for food and clothing. However, we can never rest content with this. If we are to make our country rich and powerful and live as well as other people, we should do a great deal more work and increase production with the existing manpower by making proper use of the workday. We have to allocate labour properly in addition to rationalizing the utilization of the workday. We referred to this problem at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee and also emphasized it at the Hwanghae Iron Works. An important factor in allocating manpower is to ensure that each person uses his full ability. You should not mechanically allocate women to all branches because you are told to use large numbers of female employees. You must not allocate women to those jobs which are inappropriate for them. It is also wrong to allocate men who have special expertise to fields other than their own speciality. Everyone should be allocated to a job suitable to his technical levels and skills as well as his constitution. Another important thing is to make better use of equipment. This mine’s utilization of equipment is very low. Take the use of trucks, for instance. Trucks with a capacity of four cubic metres have carried only three cubic metres. And their speed is very low; it has been less than 12 kilometres per hour. So it would be more correct to say that they crept rather than ran. Such a low rate of truck utilization is due particularly to the fact that you did not level the road properly. Doing this is neither difficult nor labour consuming. If officials will only pay some attention to widening the road and paving it with stone the speed of trucks would increase and they would be able to carry a larger load. Because you fail to do such simple things, however, you cannot make the optimum use of the valuable trucks which were bought at the expense of gold from other countries. The utilization rate of the excavator is also very low. This is mainly because its shovel often breaks down. In my talk with comrades from the Jaeryong and Hasong Mines I have found that the shovel can be 95 === [PDF page 104] === prevented from breaking down if the iron ore is smashed to pieces so as to make it convenient for loading. But now the shovel is out of order very soon because large pieces of ore are lifted carelessly. Furthermore, if you had kept spare parts for more than three months’ use in stock and checked and repaired equipment promptly as the Party instructed, breakdowns would not have become frequent occurrences, and even if the equipment had broken down, you would have been able to fix it quickly. Nevertheless, due to your failure to stock up with spare parts, you had to stop using equipment for several days even when a simple accessory was out of order. In the past it took this mine 32 days on an average to repair the excavator. Sometimes, this job took even two to three months. Now you have resolved to reduce the time needed for repairing the excavator to 20 days, but even this period seems to me to be too long. It takes less than one month to make an excavator. Then why should repairs require 20 days? If you do your best you will, I think, be able to shorten the time to 10 or 15 days rather than 20. You must reduce the repair time in respect of trucks and other mining equipment as well. The low utilization rate of equipment in the mine is also due to the failure of the ministry and management bureau to provide conditions for making greater use of it. They must ensure good conditions for those enterprises which are under their jurisdiction, to increase the utilization of their equipment. First of all, they should see to it that a special factory cuts bolts, nuts and other machine parts which are in wide use at the mines. Instead of doing this, if each mine wants to make all the necessary accessories on its own, its repair and power-supply shop will have to be as big as an excavator factory or a motor factory. Needless to say, it is necessary to enlarge this shop so that the mine can produce on its own those fittings which are within its capabilities and can also repair machines promptly. However, we cannot build an excavator factory or a motor factory for each mine. Another important way of increasing the use of equipment is to improve the technical levels and skills of the operators and repairmen. 96 === [PDF page 105] === When all the workers are well trained on their machines and are expert in handling them, the machines can work at full capacity and their lifetime can also be extended. But the workers at this mine are not very sure about the efficiency of their machines and are unable to fix them when they break down. Unless this state of affairs is stopped, we shall never be able to increase the utilization of equipment. Everyone should try to improve his technical expertise and should study hard to this end. Everyone, young and old, must learn. Those who are technically proficient should teach those who are less well-trained and the latter should learn from them. It will be necessary to send more competent operators and repairmen here to augment the mine’s work force. The Ministry of Machine Industry ought to send the best operators and repairmen here and the Ministry of Metal Industry must do so too. Because the Unnyul Mine must be expanded on a large scale, it needs greater investments for capital construction than was originally planned. The construction commission of South Hwanghae Province must complete the construction of the railway between this mine and Sohae-ri this year, and the mine itself will have to build some dwelling houses and a fuel-supply shop. Because many construction projects are being undertaken, the South Hwanghae Provincial Party Committee should give effective assistance in this work. The report referred to welfare services as being satisfactory. But I do not think that we can be satisfied with the present state of affairs. Because this province has a large area of land and a favourable climate, you can produce larger quantities of vegetables and pork. In addition, because you border on the sea you will be able to supply the workers with fish if you organize it properly. It would be a good idea to allocate a small patch of land to each household so that housewives can cultivate vegetables as well as fodder crops to produce much more pork instead of involving them in any other kind of work as a sideline. You should organize various forms of subsidiary work and get them to work as a group. A workteam would be most useful if it consisted of 97 === [PDF page 106] === some ten people rather than being too large. Subsidiary farming should be directed by the welfare service department of your enterprise only. If you organize this work properly you will be able to have plenty of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. Moreover, this will make it possible for every household to increase its income. The monthly earnings of each family should exceed at least 100 won. Further, you must develop the workers’ settlement in an exemplary way, so that it can become the centre of the rural cultural revolution. The workers’ settlement of this mine is not much better than a rustic area. You are neither good at repairing your houses nor at keeping them clean. And you do not keep your children tidy. You cannot direct the rural cultural revolution in this way, nor can you exert a good influence on the countryside. Everyone must keep not only their homes but also their towns and villages clean and must keep their children tidy. Moreover, we have to raise the level of the working people’s general knowledge to that of middle school graduates at least during the period of the Seven-Year Plan. In this way everyone will become a civilized being who is well-informed and has technical expertise. The Party Committee of the Unnyul Mine must draw up a detailed plan to turn the mine into a model workers’ settlement and should work hard to achieve this. Next, I should like to touch on the matter of augmenting military training. You must not forget for even a moment that the enemy may invade this area from the West Sea because your district is on the coast. All workers, technicians and office employees at this mine should always be ready to fight against the enemy no matter when they attack. You must build up the ranks of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards strongly and intensify military training so that you can defend the coast yourselves in case of emergency. If we are efficient in military training, consolidate our ranks, establish order and system in our work and sharpen our vigilance, we will be well able to repulse any enemy invasion. 98 === [PDF page 107] === Because all our people are under arms, the US scoundrels dare not attack us, even though they want to invade our country. When they were driven out of the northern half of Korea during the last war, they boasted that they would come again when the azaleas were in bloom. But they cannot set foot on the soil of the northern half of Korea, though the azaleas have already bloomed and withered more than ten times since then. The US imperialists’ ambition to swallow up our country can never be realized. However, there is the danger of their attacking again. The enemy are always sending spies, subversive elements and saboteurs into the northern half of the country. If we fail to establish order and system in our work and relax our vigilance, they can find a foothold amongst us. We should intensify class education among all the Party members and the masses, and so ensure that they keep on raising their ideological level and sharpening their revolutionary vigilance. We must particularly intensify the work in the neighbourhood units so that no alien elements can establish themselves. If you carry out this work faithfully, you will know what each household has got, what everyone does and how he behaves. Accordingly, alien elements are unable to worm their way into the neighbourhood units. And even if some of them had managed to do so, they would be captured immediately. We should select chiefs of the neighbourhood units from among the best people and devote our close attention to strengthening the work of these units. In conclusion, I should like to stress again that you must do your best to implement this year’s plan. The most important thing in fulfilling the Seven-Year Plan is to attain the six goals of steel, coal, electric power, fertilizer, grain and foreign currency. As was mentioned above, the Unnyul Mine is entrusted with a very important task in attaining the goal in respect of steel. Whether we will attain it or not largely depends on whether or not you carry out the task assigned to you. Only when this mine can ensure the smooth supply of iron ore for the Hwanghae Iron Works will the latter be able to achieve good results. Only when this iron 99 === [PDF page 108] === works fulfils its plan will the machine industry work properly. And only when that industry achieves its plan will it be possible to solve all our problems including those of electric power, fertilizer and grain. Therefore, if the Hwanghae Iron Works is named “Height 1211”, we can call the Unnyul Mine its neighbouring height. The problem of foreign currency assumes very great importance now. Attaining the goal of steel production is also important for the solution of this problem. Foreign currency is essential for buying modern and new factories, machines and equipment as well as those raw materials which we do not have. We still have to buy many things from foreign countries–rubber, fuel oil and coking coal. Moreover, only when we earn a great deal of foreign currency will we be able to produce those articles which we lack. We have no rubber, but if we develop the chemical industry we will be able to produce it. If we buy a nitron factory, we can weave woolen fabrics with our own raw materials. If we produce 80,000 to 100,000 tons of chemical fibre we will not need to import cotton. Therefore, we must do everything we can to earn as much foreign currency as possible. Because we have a limited area of cultivated land we have little chance of earning foreign currency by selling our agricultural products as some other countries do. If we are to acquire a large amount of foreign currency we must develop industry and sell large quantities of industrial goods. We have deposits of nearly all those minerals which are needed for industry, such as gold, silver, copper and iron. If we mine them in large quantities and produce different industrial articles including metal tools, metal products, medical appliances and electrical instruments for export we can earn a large sum in foreign currency. As I have mentioned above, you assume a very heavy responsibility in implementing the Seven-Year Plan. I firmly believe that you will win a glorious victory in your work this year in response to the Party’s call. 100 === [PDF page 109] === ON TEMPERING THE PARTY SPIRIT OF FOREIGN TRADE WORKERS AND STRICTLY ADHERING TO INDEPENDENCE IN FOREIGN TRADE Concluding Speech at a General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the Ministry of Foreign Trade January 28, 1965 The report and speeches made at today’s meeting are all correct. I had intended to express my view after hearing you out, but I have to attend to another matter, so I will speak now. We have learned what was discussed at the meetings of the cells under the ministry’s Party committee over the past few days. This meeting is a very useful and necessary one for the progress of our work, but it seems to me that it is a bit late to hold such a meeting only today. If we had held meetings of this kind once or twice a year many of the shortcomings would not have accumulated and those who have been criticized would not feel so much pain. Leaving minor mistakes to go unchecked and then criticizing them when they have grown serious is tantamount to trying to wash off all the dirt which has been accumulated over a long time at once. When you are a little dirty, you can wash yourself clean by using soap; but when you have acquired a thick layer of dirt, you cannot remove it without applying a knife. And applying knife will probably hurt you. Vice-ministers have been severely criticized, but it is better for 101 === [PDF page 110] === them to have their old dirt rubbed off, even though it hurts a little, rather than to remain dirty. You must get rid of your dirt even if you have to apply a knife because it cannot be washed off with soap. Only then can you live as clean people again. If you leave your dirt intact for fear of pain, you may go bad. This is why the criticism at this meeting is indispensable in saving our cadres and putting our work on the right track. The experience we have gained on this occasion should teach us a lesson. We must make sure that in future a meeting of the ministry’s Party organization does not become a technical or administrative meeting, but becomes one which teaches people through ideological struggle in an atmosphere of strong criticism. The minister and vice-ministers who have been criticized at the meeting were not originally people with many defects. All the vice-ministers, not to mention the minister who is a member of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee, have a good family background. If you look at the family status of vice-ministers you will see that all of them are of worker origin. They are new cadres whom our Party promoted after liberation. As regards other comrades who have been criticized today, they are also of good origin and worked well before this. The Party trusted them and sent them to the ministry. As you can see, they were all good people originally. However, they have developed many shortcomings because they did as they pleased for a long time without receiving criticism and control from the masses, being neglectful of Party life. Once they are appointed ministers or vice-ministers, some people put on airs as if they were high-ranking government officials of the old regime; they neither respect the Party organizations and Party resolutions nor conscientiously take part in Party life; they ignore the masses and act in a bureaucratic way. That is the trouble. Until now we were ignorant of the fact that ministers and vice-ministers, placing themselves above the Party organizations, do not attend the cell meetings and act as they please. We have learned on 102 === [PDF page 111] === this occasion that such a practice is common not only in the Ministry of Foreign Trade but also in other ministries. Many ministers and vice-ministers from other ministries are present at this meeting. It is advisable that they all learn a lesson from it. People of bourgeois or petty-bourgeois origin are not the only ones who retain bourgeois ideology. Cadres of working-class origin may also have many surviving traces of obsolete ideologies. Even cadres with a good family background can take a wrong turning and degenerate if they are not trained. The Party organization should always exercise control over the lives of Party members and cadres and train them without ceasing so that none of them goes astray. The most important thing in the education of cadres is collective education through organizational life. Individual teaching is also necessary, with the minister educating the vice-ministers and they, in turn, training the department chiefs. However, the main thing is that Party cells should conduct their meetings effectively and that Party organizations encourage collective criticism. The Party is an organization with strong discipline. Party members participate in the revolutionary struggle through the Party organization; they must constantly temper themselves through organizational life. For Party members and cadres to remain outside this life virtually means that they have cut themselves off from the Party organization. All Party members should unconditionally obey Party discipline and consider faithful participation in organizational life to be their most sacred duty, a precept of their life and an honour. A Party member who hates organizational life and regards Party control as a nuisance has already contracted a serious disease. If he is not quickly cured of this he may eventually become a good-for-nothing, disqualified even from citizenship, let alone Party membership. For a Party member to get out of the control of the Party is as dangerous as a baby getting out of its mother’s arms. If in a family the father and mother do not control and educate their children properly they will go astray. 103 === [PDF page 112] === When you regularly take part in Party life you can learn from other comrades’ criticism about the shortcomings of which you have so far been unaware. And even when you are not criticized yourself you can be influenced by the criticism offered to others and repent of your mistakes. Then you can rectify your shortcomings speedily and always remain faithful to the Party. Therefore, Party members should willingly and actively participate in Party life and the Party organization must exercise strict control so that its members will not evade such life. If the organizational life of Party members and cadres is to be strengthened, it is important to create an atmosphere of criticism within the Party. The Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee served as an important turning point in bringing inner-Party democracy into play and intensifying criticism among Party members. We have failed in the past to train cadres properly through criticism. Accordingly, cadres are very much ashamed and afraid of being criticized, and Party members, for their part, are reluctant to criticize cadres. If this tendency grows cadres will inevitably get away from Party life. Only when cadres are tempered through criticism will they realize the strength of the masses, become more humble and always rely on the Party organization and the masses in their work. Criticism must be conducted regularly. There is no such thing as a perfect and flawless person. Any Party member can commit errors while he is working. We should not overlook even the smallest shortcoming but criticize and rectify it promptly. Criticism offered as soon as someone has taken a wrong direction can put the work on the right track and save the man himself. If we leave a man uncriticized for a long time and decry him or sack him when the work has gone altogether wrong, it will be of no use to the Party. Criticism should always be made in a comradely way. Its purpose is to establish a sound way of life within the Party, strengthen unity between comrades and improve our work. Therefore, those who 104 === [PDF page 113] === criticize should not do so just for the sake of disparaging others, but should be motivated by a wholehearted sympathy for their shortcomings and by the principled attitude of defending the Party’s interests. When a mother scolds her children she feels great pain. However, she does not hesitate to scold them for their misdemeanour because she loves them. Our Party members, too, should not overlook the faults of their comrades if they truly love them, but should criticize them promptly. Only such comradely criticism can touch a man’s feelings and bring back to the right track the comrade who is going astray. Those comrades who are criticized should accept the criticism with a good grace and an open mind, even if it is somewhat painful, and should courageously rectify their own shortcomings. They ought never to be dispirited for having been criticized or think of taking revenge for it. They should seriously examine the causes of their errors and tirelessly strive to eliminate them. The mere acceptance of criticism does not mean that one’s errors have already been corrected. Those comrades who have been criticized today should conscientiously lead a Party life and discipline themselves and carry out their revolutionary tasks successfully, thus remedying their errors by their actions. At this meeting it is mainly the minister and vice-ministers who have been criticized, but this does not imply that criticism is necessary for cadres only. It is true that the minister and vice-ministers have revealed many shortcomings because they did not faithfully participate in Party life in the past. But strengthening Party life and tempering Party spirit is essential for everybody. In future it is necessary to create an atmosphere of criticism among all the Party members at the ministry and intensify the work of tempering Party spirit. Tempering Party spirit is more essential for the personnel engaged in foreign trade. Foreign trade plays a very important role in accelerating our socialist construction and developing friendship and cooperation with other countries. 105 === [PDF page 114] === The Ministry of Foreign Trade is an organ which is in charge of foreign economic activities for the state. Our foreign trade not only constitutes an important means of effecting economic cooperation with other countries, but also greatly contributes to developing political relations between states. Friendly relations between states usually begin with trade and gradually develop to build up political relations. In this sense we can say that it is the first step in the development of our foreign relations. Foreign trade is not only a very important undertaking of any state but is also a difficult and complex work. The Ministry of Foreign Trade has dealings with Western capitalist countries, to say nothing of the socialist countries and the neutral states of Asia and Africa. Officials of this ministry visit degenerate capitalist countries and often have dealings with people of revisionist countries. If they have a weak Party spirit and a low level of communist self-discipline they may be influenced by the dissipated capitalist way of life and become capitalist-minded and infected by revisionism before they know it in the course of meeting capitalists and revisionists often. This can be likened to a man catching cold while in contact with an influenza case. When he comes in contact with a patient, he is continually infected by viruses, although they are invisible. A person who always hardens his body and has great powers of resistance to diseases will not fall ill even if he comes into close contact with a patient. However, a weak man, with low resistance, can easily be attacked by disease. A person who does not continually temper his Party spirit and is not firmly armed with the Party’s policies and Marxist-Leninist world outlook, may very quickly catch a capitalist cold when he comes in contact with capitalists and a revisionist cold when in touch with revisionists. That is why you should constantly steel your Party spirit by participating in Party life regularly and actively and by tirelessly studying the Party’s policies and Marxism-Leninism in the same way that people cultivate their resistance to diseases by means of cold-water rubs every morning and a great deal of physical exercise. 106 === [PDF page 115] === The Party spirit of foreign trade officials must be manifested, above all, in adhering firmly to independence and the spirit of Juche in external economic activities. In these activities they should stick to Party policy and thoroughly safeguard the interests of our people and our revolution. A person who does not defend the political and economic interests of his country is not eligible to be a foreign trade official. The officials engaged in foreign trade should love their country and people deeply and must clearly understand all the demands of our revolution and socialist construction for foreign trade and devotedly work to meet them. They are grossly mistaken if they think that it will suffice for them to know about foreign things only. They should first comprehend the situation in this country and the Party’s policies. They should be versed not only in the Party’s policy on foreign trade but also in all its internal and external policies. Only then can they carry out economic diplomacy on the basis of Juche. It is a failing of our foreign trade officials today that they are ignorant of conditions in their country and are not sensitive to the Party’s requirements. A person who desires only to know about foreign things and is ignorant of his own will lose Juche in his work and fall into flunkeyism towards great powers and dogmatism. If you lack Juche you will lose faith in your own strength and cannot fight in defence of your own country’s interests. During the past Fatherland Liberation War we felt all the more keenly the necessity of establishing Juche. After liberation we gave a great deal of publicity to the Soviet Union, but said little about our own struggle–the struggle of the Korean people themselves. If we had told our Party members and working people of the history of our struggle and educated them in the fighting spirit of our revolutionaries from the beginning, they would have fought better during the temporary retreat and many people would not have lost their lives. But we did not train our people in this way and so, when the 107 === [PDF page 116] === Yanks came, many people hoped that others would help them, instead of trying to fight the enemy for themselves. They were discouraged, saying, “With no help from foreign troops, how can we fight against the formidable Yanks?” We learned a lesson from this bitter experience and began to rectify our Party ideological work. At that time it was lacking in Juche and many officials were committing errors of flunkeyism and dogmatism. I examined the curricula of schools and found that while hundreds of hours were allotted to the study of world history, very little time was devoted to the history of our country. Only when we give the students many lessons in the history of our nation and, in particular, the history of our revolutionary struggle, will they be able to take over our revolutionary traditions and bravely fight against any enemy. However, our schools did not teach many lessons on the history of our people’s patriotic struggles such as the March 1 Uprising and the Kwangju Student Incident, and treated the anti-Japanese guerrilla struggle very carelessly. Our artistes generally preferred to sing European songs, our painters produced landscapes showing European or Siberian scenes, and everywhere we went we saw only portraits of Europeans hung on the walls. One day during the war I visited an army vacation hostel, where I saw a picture of a Siberian landscape hanging in a room; it showed a bear crawling about a snow-covered forest. So I asked the soldiers why they hung this Siberian landscape on the wall when our country had so many famous mountains of rare beauty such as Mts. Kumgang and Myohyang, as well as beautiful, time-honoured scenic spots. If the armymen are only shown foreign landscapes all the time they cannot cultivate patriotism–love for their native places and their homeland. Soon after we returned from the retreat, I visited a middle school. There were many portraits hung in classrooms, of which only one was Korean–mine. So I asked the teachers why we only hung portraits of Europeans and praised them when our country had produced a large number of famous generals, excellent scholars and talented artists. I 108 === [PDF page 117] === also stressed that schools should teach not only European songs but many Korean songs. During the war our Party set the workers in the field of art the task of introducing a wider use of national instruments and developing national music and national dance. At first, however, the Party’s policy was not properly carried into effect because of the manoeuvres of the anti-Party factionalists who had wormed their way into this field. Some people rejected our national instruments, alleging that they were not like musical instruments because they lacked two tones. In order to eliminate this kind of defect which had been revealed in ideological work, our Party started a resolute struggle in 1955 to reject flunkeyism towards great powers and dogmatism and to establish Juche. Because it established Juche in ideological work our Party has always been able to hold fast to its correct revolutionary lines and achieve great successes in the revolution and construction, frustrating the pressure and all kinds of intrigues on the part of the great-power chauvinists. In the past, the flunkeyists and dogmatists caused heavy losses to the state in foreign trade also. Let me cite an example from the ordnance industry. Certain people entrenched in this field ostensibly worked for our country but, in fact, they served the interests of foreigners. They claimed that rifle stocks cannot be made without Russian white birch, and imported this commodity, spending a large sum of foreign currency. When they saw foreigners making boxes from off-cuts of wood so as not to waste them, they went to the lengths of making boxes by cutting up good timber. We should wage a resolute struggle against the way in which people involved in foreign trade lose their sense of independence and blindly obey the demands of foreigners, thus causing losses to the state. In the future when the state ceases to exist and the whole world turns into a communist society there will be no problem. However, as long as frontiers exist and ownership is divided, clear distinctions should be made even between socialist countries. It is naive to think 109 === [PDF page 118] === that somebody will give us anything for nothing. A person who does not defend the interests of his own country in external activities is no better than one who betrays his country and people. The officials of the Ministry of Foreign Trade should not make the least compromise or show the slightest wavering in defending the interests of the Party and the state. It would be dangerous for flunkeyists and dogmatists who lack Party and class spirit and are not armed with Juche to slip into the ranks of foreign trade workers. We should tirelessly endeavour to build up the Ministry of Foreign Trade and educate its officials to become revolutionary fighters who are completely loyal to the Party and the state. Next, I am going to make a few remarks on the improvement of foreign trade. Above all, our reputation must be strictly protected in foreign trade. Without prestige it is impossible to develop trade between countries. Of course, trust is not unilateral. Both of the trading countries should maintain it. Although it is also necessary to request other countries to show their faith, we ourselves should be the first to keep ours. At home you can easily correct anything which might go wrong should this happen, but in foreign trade it is difficult to regain prestige once you have lost it. To maintain a good reputation in trade is directly related to the prestige of the country concerned. However, we often lose credibility in foreign trade. The main reason for this is that the production ministries fail to produce export goods on time. We have stressed for a long time the need for giving priority to the production of export goods and raising their quality drastically. In April last year we again called your attention to this problem by adopting a joint decision of the Party and the Cabinet. In spite of this some production ministries, including the Ministry of Metal Industry, still lack the attitude of masters in carrying out the plan for export goods and make light of their production. Some ministries consider this production to be something which can be done or left undone as they think fit. An official in the Ministry of Metal 110 === [PDF page 119] === Industry went so far as to direct enterprises to use export goods at home, although the matter had been clearly dealt with in a Cabinet decision. The Party policy on fulfilling the yearly export plan in the proportion of 55 per cent in the first half of the year to 45 in the second half is also not being carried out properly. Some production ministries remain idle during the first half of the year and then make noisy claims about their production of export goods in the second half. As a result, they eventually cannot fulfil their foreign contracts, so causing difficulties to other countries and spoiling the reputation of our country. Production ministries are also unable to raise the quality of exports to meet the requirements of overseas markets. There are some cases in which our goods are popular in foreign markets at first but lose prestige before long because their quality has deteriorated. To improve foreign trade, production ministries must drastically raise their sense of responsibility. If they do not ensure the production of export goods there is nothing that the Ministry of Foreign Trade can do. That is why the other ministers and vice-ministers have been asked to attend this general membership meeting of the Party organization of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Senior officials in production ministries should examine their work critically and take the necessary measures in the light of the joint decision of the Party and the Cabinet on developing foreign trade. The Ministries of Metal Industry, Chemical Industry and Machine Industry, the State Light Industry Commission and other ministries which produce a great deal of export goods should direct their particular attention to this problem. Although I have been talking about the shortcomings of production ministries I do not mean that the Ministry of Foreign Trade is blameless. Officials of this ministry should look within themselves first of all to find the reasons why foreign trade goes wrong. The ministry often complains that the export goods are not produced, while failing to do political work among workers so that they will produce more and better goods. As in all other work, so in foreign trade you 111 === [PDF page 120] === have to mobilize the masses by giving precedence to political work, if you are to achieve success. Trade workers should visit the workers in the factories and enterprises and explain our Party’s policy on foreign trade and its significance thoroughly. Only then will the masses be mobilized voluntarily to fulfil the production plan for exports promptly and improve the quality of goods. Our working people are infinitely loyal to the Party. Among our Party members and working people are many who fought heroically against the enemy during the past Fatherland Liberation War as well as numerous heroes who are today working well in socialist construction unassumingly. Indeed, our working people struggle against all odds to carry out their assignments, when the Party allocates them. If officials of the Ministry of Foreign Trade bring home to our workers the importance of foreign trade, there will certainly be a marked increase in the production of exports. At present this ministry has several hundred agency workers. If its senior officials mobilize this force effectively they can easily do political work at production ministries or factories and enterprises. However, none of them has done so in the past. When ministers and vice-ministers visited factories they confined themselves to meeting managers or chief engineers and urging or requesting them to produce export goods. In order to increase the output of exports, it is imperative to go among workers of factories and enterprises to do political work. We must not try to rouse people into activity by means of money or material goods like capitalists or revisionists. Under all circumstances communists have to awaken the masses so that they will carry out their revolutionary tasks willingly. A few days ago we went to the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant. The plant is well known not only in our country but in other countries as well. Its products are exported to many countries but their quality is low. At a Party-cell meeting of the transformer shop at this factory I told 112 === [PDF page 121] === those present about our diplomats who had been put to shame because of the low quality of the transformers which they had made. On hearing this, the workers said that it was a disgrace to a Chollima factory, and they unanimously resolved at all costs to produce quality transformers and send them to foreign countries. Had officials of the Ministry of Foreign Trade gone to the transformer shop and fully explained to the workers the purpose and significance of export production before this the quality of transformers would already have improved a great deal. In developing foreign trade, too, we must always rely on the masses. This is the only way to raise the quality of goods quickly and gain a good reputation in foreign markets. While maintaining our good name in foreign trade, we should work hard to expand our foreign markets. So far we have emphasized, on many occasions, the need to meet domestic consumption from our own production, but have paid little attention to the necessity of exporting our goods and importing what our country requires. At the moment our rapidly-developing economy demands the further expansion of our foreign markets. We must import fuel oil, rubber, coking coal and other fuel and raw materials. In the past tens of thousands of tons of imported fuel oil were sufficient, but now several hundred thousand tons have to be imported. This is the only way in which we can fully meet the daily-increasing demand of the national economy for fuel. As our steel output rapidly increases, that much more coking coal is needed. Although we have achieved success in producing rubber by chemical methods, we still have to import it. We have to import not only fuel and raw materials but also machinery and equipment. We intend to exploit and operate many ore mines in future. In order to do this we must import compressors and other mining equipment. During my recent visit to the Unnyul Mine I found that sinking drills were also urgently required. These will enable us to increase efficiency while working less hard in safety and use a considerably smaller workforce than at present. If we drill a hole and 113 === [PDF page 122] === insert the dynamite before blasting it is extremely effective. But we are not yet able to make drills and so cannot use them widely in mines. Moreover, we intend to establish more vertical shafts, but we are held up because of the shortage of loading machines. So we must import a wide variety of mining machinery in future. Light industry has also got to import some equipment which is essential for improving the quality of consumer goods. We have built a large number of machine factories, but there are quite a few technical problems to be solved. Furthermore, a large number of machines in our machinery factories are old, and the distribution of equipment is not good. Some places have surplus drilling machines but few presses; others are short of drilling machines but have large stocks of grinders. As a result there are interruptions in the processes and machines cannot work to capacity and so they are failing to make various kinds of quality machinery and equipment in large quantities. We must not try to develop our economy by relying only on our own machine industry. Of course we must consider it the main factor, but we have to import some equipment, the production of which is still impossible or unprofitable for our country. Only by so doing can we supplement the inadequacies of our industry so as to develop the national economy rapidly and improve the people’s living standards. In order to import materials necessary for our economic construction we need a large amount of foreign currency. Therefore, at the recent plenary meeting of its Central Committee the Party declared that it was an important task to earn a great deal of foreign currency in all sectors of the national economy. If we are to earn the amount of foreign currency anticipated in the Seven-Year Plan, we will have to export twice as much as we do now. This is not a great amount in the light of the level of our economic development. A country like ours which has firm industrial foundations ought to export much more than that to earn foreign currency. In order to fulfil the export plan officials of the Ministry of Foreign 114 === [PDF page 123] === Trade must first import in the near future the machinery, equipment and raw materials which are wanted by the Ministry of Metal Industry and other production ministries. This in itself will enable us to mine larger quantities of gold, zinc, and other metals, which are important sources of foreign currency, and raise the quality of our light industrial products. Foreign trade officials should pay special attention to exploiting very many foreign markets. If we are to be successful in trading, we have to find many buyers for our exports. Unfortunately we have few markets. This is mainly because of the limited variety of our products. To open up new foreign markets, trade workers must get to know in detail what goods are in demand overseas and advise the production industries so that they can mass-produce different kinds of goods which are in great demand. At the moment, however, they are not working like this, but are demanding goods of producers in an arbitrary manner. This will not solve the problem. They must not simply act as merchants; they ought to put forward a rational export plan from the time when export production is planned. For example, they must calculate in detail the kinds and amount of light and heavy industrial products which can be exported to a certain country in Southeast Asia, and see to it that these goods are included in the plans of production ministries. They ought also to try to maintain the quality of export goods. At present cloth is in great demand in Southeast Asian markets. But we are unable to sell any there because of its low quality, although we have a large quantity of it in stock. This is also true of our other goods. Trade officials should make a detailed study of the requirements of foreigners for the quality and standard of each type of goods and advise production ministries accordingly and then charge them with ensuring the high quality of exports. If we increase the variety of exports and raise their quality we will have large markets not only in a few socialist countries but also in Southeast Asia and many other areas around the world. 115 === [PDF page 124] === Steel and zinc, the main export items we are producing now, are good sellers in all markets. But we cannot sell enough of them because we have not found a large overseas market. Steel is needed mainly in construction and machine building, so it is only wanted by developed countries, not by those which build very little and manufacture a very small quantity of machinery. Less developed industrial countries may want cloth, consumer goods, various metal products and cement in large quantities. If you are to develop our foreign trade, you have to enlarge the overseas market extensively. We should develop active trade relations not only with socialist countries but also with newly independent and capitalist countries. We must advance into international markets and continually extend the sphere of our trade, attaching prime importance to the socialist market in accordance with Party policy. Only by doing so can we develop our foreign trade more comprehensively and independently. Production ministries should improve the organization of export production in keeping with the requirements of foreign markets. Otherwise we will only continue to sell raw materials such as copper, lead, zinc and concentrate. Not only that, but if you do not sell the export goods in stock because of their low quality, you will cause a great loss to the country. Officials of production ministries have to realize this clearly and raise their sense of responsibility for export production. In light industry, particularly, the production organization should be improved, the variety of exports increased and their quality raised. You ought to build a factory or a workshop which specializes in mass-producing metal consumer goods of high quality. In order to promote the export of cement it is necessary to build more cement factories or calcining kilns, even if the construction plan for other projects is cut down a little, and keep the domestic use of cement to the minimum. For the strengthening of trade discipline you must adopt an appropriate law and have it strictly observed. There will have to be 116 === [PDF page 125] === strict discipline under which the officials can be put under legal pressure when those in foreign trade do not carry out their duties faithfully or those in production ministries fail to fulfil their export production plans properly. The Party and the state entrust you with important responsibilities. I firmly believe that after this meeting you will strengthen your Party life and further train your Party spirit, thereby displaying a high degree of responsibility and devotion in the implementation of the Party’s policy on foreign trade and contributing greatly to the development of foreign trade as well as socialist construction in our country. 117 === [PDF page 126] === TO ATTAIN THE STEEL PRODUCTION GOAL OF THE SEVEN-YEAR PLAN Speech Delivered at an Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee of the Kangson Steel Plant January 30, 1965 We originally proposed to attend your meeting for two days, but I have to shorten the duration of working with you because 1 have spent more time than anticipated guiding the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant. However, I do not think that this will be too much of an obstacle to guidance work because when we came here last December we told you that there would be another opportunity to discuss this year’s plan and let you make ideological preparations in advance, and because members of the guidance group came earlier this time, too, and discussed the matter fully with you. The aim of the guidance the Party Central Committee decided to give to the work of ministry and factory Party committees after the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee is to eradicate bureaucratism, formalism and an indolent work style from the ministries right down to the factories. The guidance group members for the Ministry of Metal Industry, in cooperation with the factory Party committee, convened Party cell meetings for a long time to discuss all matters fully and mixed with the masses to bring their enthusiasm and creativity into play. As a result, what immense reserves were found and how many difficulties and 118 === [PDF page 127] === hardships were able to be overcome by the factory itself! The success gained in the current guidance to the Kangson Steel Plant alone shows us that the way of relying on the masses and enlisting their cooperation in carrying out the revolution and construction is the only proper method and that the conclusion and decision of the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee were correct. In the past senior ministry officials gave bureaucratic and formalistic guidance in violation of the Party’s mass line and even when they did visit factories, they only met the managers or chief engineers at most, neither mixing with the masses nor holding meetings. Therefore they could not know what was in the mind of the masses; they could not discover what the difficult problems were nor were they able to solve those problems which they could easily have done. Since they gave guidance in this way, they became incompetent, although they were all university graduates and were said to know all about economic and technical matters. Senior officials can solve problems only by consulting with the specialists concerned and with the producer masses. However clever he may be, a man cannot do anything by himself. Since you have many Party members and activists, nothing is impossible if only you draw on their knowledge and efforts. You know the actual situation of the factory better than anyone else. In the past, however, senior ministry officials visited factories on their own, without any specialists, and issued random orders for this or that to be done without any consultation with you, as though they knew everything. Once the chief of the General Bureau of Metal Industry gave guidance in precisely this way. This shows an unpardonable disdain for the masses and is a primitive work method unsuited to the present situation. This is not like the feudal ages when people worked spinning wheels on their own but an age of large machines when a multitude of people work together, combining their knowledge and efforts. Senior officials, therefore, ought to work in a way befitting today’s socialist reality. Only when we allow those with technical ability to use that ability, those with experience to contribute that experience and those 119 === [PDF page 128] === with strength to give that strength, can we successfully solve complicated problems which arise in socialist construction. How good it is that on this occasion the guidance group came to join you in serious discussions and have now discovered not only enormous reserves for increasing production but a clear way to solve difficult problems! What a good method this is! If we had not discussed ways of improving the management of the national economy at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee and taken measures to implement the decision, and if we had continued to work in an old-fashioned way, it is obvious that we should have been unable to attain the goals of the Seven-Year Plan at all. Now we can say with confidence that we shall be able to reach these goals without difficulty. Through my visit to the Hwanghae Iron Works, the Unnyul Mine and your steel plant I have come to believe that we can attain the production goals of steel and iron and complete the whole Seven-Year Plan. It all depends on whether or not officials keep on adhering to the work method based on the mass line. There is no doubt that good results will be achieved if ministry workers do not give way to bureaucracy or work in a formalistic way and if they are not lazy in giving guidance but always go among the masses in order to discuss problems with them, hear their opinions and make use of their knowledge. Why have the US imperialists not yet been driven out of south Korea? Because the south Korean people are not yet roused and do not come out for the revolutionary struggle. Why do the people of the world still fail to eradicate imperialism? Because the oppressed nations and peoples all over the world are not yet stimulated and mobilized. If the south Korean people would only rouse themselves and unite to rise courageously for battle and the oppressed nations and peoples around the world would do the same, the US imperialists would be thrown out of south Korea without doubt and world imperialism would perish. This is also true for our struggle to attain the goals under the Seven-Year Plan. When senior officials and working 120 === [PDF page 129] === people unite as one and the entire nation overcomes difficulties one by one in the spirit of fighting the enemy, we cannot fail to fulfil the Seven-Year Plan, no matter how difficult a task it may be. From the report and speeches today I can see that you are working in high spirits. I support your report and speeches and think that it would be good for all ministry and factory Party committees to review their work in this way quarterly and monthly from now on. Recently I went to the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant where I was told that workers knew of a technical method which would help to save several hundred tons of silicon steel plates, but that their chief engineer did not know this. How does this happen? This is because the chief engineer had not approached the masses nor listened to their suggestions, being conceited and arrogant and believing that no one else knew anything about techniques. On this occasion the Party meeting of the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant was delayed because its senior officials were not ideologically ready and the preparations for the meeting were incomplete. At first, when I saw the written report, it seemed to me that there were reserves and good potential, so I went there. We first convened a consultative meeting of shop managers. At the meeting we frankly explained how we were suffering from the shortage of steel and the foreign currency situation as well as how we needed to make strenuous efforts, in a spirit of self-reliance, to fulfil the Seven-Year Plan at all costs. At this the shop managers rose to their feet. They said that at such a grave moment the chief engineer or the factory leadership were keeping immense reserves hidden. The reserves for savings first put forward by the factory leadership were 300 tons of silicon steel plates and 70 tons of copper, but at the meeting shop managers said that the figures were too low and that they could save not 300 but 1,000 tons of silicon steel plates, and not 70 but 300 tons of copper, if they worked well. They had good grounds for making this claim. It is evident that the producer masses know the factory’s work better than the chief engineer or the factory leadership. It is also obvious that the factory Party committee did not listen to the masses’ 121 === [PDF page 130] === opinions in detail because they were preparing for the cell meetings in a hurry. So we gave instructions for them to hold their cell meetings again. In the event we had to make another visit to the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant. The facts revealed in the recent guidance to the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant clearly show once more how harmful is the bureaucratic and formalistic way of work by which senior officials neither believe in the masses nor have faith in their knowledge and strength, so confident are they of their own petty wisdom. I support your draft plan. We ought to discuss whether we should make it a plan for increased production or the state plan task. In my opinion it would be better to make it the former. An increased production plan does not mean that it does not matter whether you fulfil it or not. We intend to give production assignments to other sectors on condition that you fulfil the increased production tasks. You must carry out these tasks without fail. If you do not do so, other sectors whose assignments dovetail with yours will be unable to carry out their own production plans. The Kangson Steel Plant was the first in the Chollima Workteam Movement and is frequently given direct guidance by the Party Central Committee. If you attend the Party congress after fulfilling the Seven-Year Plan with success, your factory will have earned another great honour. If you go ahead in the same spirit with which you fulfilled the Five-Year Plan ahead of schedule, you will also be able to carry out the Seven-Year Plan, without any doubt. Of course, some production targets will be a little difficult. Steel might be one of them. Because 275,000 tons of steel will be produced this year, there is still a long way to go to reach the target of 400,000 tons. Everyone must set to work to achieve victory in the struggle and make heroic efforts. On this occasion you have shown a good example in seeking out reserves. You did not ask for a great deal of capital construction, but 122 === [PDF page 131] === have tried to solve matters by carrying out your own campaign for technical renovation and by mobilizing every possible potentiality. This is very good. You found your errors in yourselves, instead of putting the blame on outside objects. I always tell those doing Party work that they should find faults in themselves but materials for work from the object. You cannot discover working materials by just sitting in your offices. Only when you go onto the shop floor will you find them. If things go wrong, you must first look for their causes in your mistakes. This is the way to solve problems and carry on work smoothly. This time you behaved in just this way. First of all you considered it important to seek out your defects in implementing the plan for the year 1964. In this way you could find the vast reserves needed to fulfil the plan for 1965. It was good that you thoroughly examined your work now. Only when you seriously criticize your defects can you find ways to correct them. If you try to blame others for your shortcomings you can never correct them. You must not wait until your defects are pointed out by others, but try to find them yourselves. When they are indicated by others, you cannot understand clearly what they are and, accordingly, cannot work out good measures to correct them. However, the shortcomings which you find for yourselves can be easily remedied. The same can be said of one’s development. Anyone who tries to blame his shortcomings on others can never correct them. Such a man cannot develop. But one who sincerely regrets his mistake and tries to remedy it will surely become a fine person. The Taean Electrical Machinery Plant still puts the responsibility for its shortcomings on objective conditions, instead of finding them in the subjective. Since they do not recognize their shortcomings, they are still unable to tap reserves, although they have enough of them. In 1961 when we directed the plant, we merged the designing institute with the designing department. At that time the designing department was hard pressed because of the shortage of staff while the 123 === [PDF page 132] === designing institute was idle. So it was our intention to solve problems through their united efforts. However, the Machine Industry Commission split them again without consulting us. In consequence the designing institute exceeded its plan by ten per cent and even received a bonus, but the factory could not produce many items because 27 out of 56 designs which they had ordered for new products had not been prepared. The result of this was that a large number of factories were unable to take delivery of electrical appliances including motors and transformers and so could not fulfil their production plans. Officials of the institute say that it is ideal to keep the designing department and their institute separate. They are only thinking of the bonus they get by overfulfilling their plan by ten per cent, but give no thought to many other factories suffering great production losses because of the factory’s failure to produce 27 kinds of goods. These comrades still do not know how serious their shortcomings are. For them Party cell meetings should be extended so that all of them can fully realize their defects. Of course, there may still be some points which were inadequately examined in drawing up this increased production plan as well as some deficiencies in formulating a policy for the correction of defects. However, it is an expression of your excellent work style that you tried to find your shortcomings mainly in yourselves. If you understand your defects and try to correct them, you will certainly achieve great success in your work. Things will not work well when you rely on others. As for the strength of others, you can only draw on half of it at best. You should believe in your strength above all, correct your shortcomings by your own efforts and find ways to improve work in yourselves. Whether drawing up a plan and re-examining it or carrying it out, we must solve all problems in this spirit. Supply work for the Kangson Steel Plant must also be improved. It is advisable for the Hwanghae Iron Works and other related factories and enterprises, not to mention the Ministry of Metal Industry, to 124 === [PDF page 133] === provide all the materials needed in the Kangson Steel Plant as far as possible. Now I am going to speak about the work to be done by the factory from now on. As was also pointed out at the recent Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee, the main task in factory work now is to forge ahead with the technical revolution. Technical innovation will disclose enormous reserves. Let me take the blooming shop of this factory, for instance. In the days of Japanese imperialist rule the rated capacity of the blooming mill was no more than 60,000 tons, but after you made technical improvements it produced 120,000 tons in 1957 and 190,000 tons last year. To be sure, you also produced some rejects last year. This is a matter for regret. If you had exercised a little better technical care and made adequate preparations you would not have had any rejects but would have produced 200,000 tons of steel without difficulty. I was told that workers in this shop were resolved to increase the capacity of this blooming mill up to 470,000 tons in the future through efficient technical improvement. How bold and brave a plan this is! Not only the blooming shop but the steel shop also finds reserves for increased production by introducing new techniques. This is very good. If new techniques are continually worked out production will steadily increase, which will also boost its per-capita value. Therefore, you should continue to advance under the banner of technical innovation. This is the era of technical revolution. It should be carried out not only in agriculture but also in all other fields of the national economy. This is the basic task of the Seven-Year Plan put forward by our Party at its Fourth Congress. Only through the technical revolution can we advance rapidly. In order to advance the technical innovation movement forcefully it is necessary to strengthen cooperation among workers, technicians and management personnel. Management workers should not fall into conservatism and inaction nor should technicians neglect to study 125 === [PDF page 134] === technical development diligently or to acquire specialized technical expertise. Management workers should discard their weak attitude and actively organize the work to develop technique. Technicians must study not only our own developments but also the advanced technology of other countries and must read new technical publications so that they can increase their specialized technical knowledge. At the same time, workers should consult with technicians often, drawing on their experience gained directly in the course of production, and make a number of good suggestions. For the promotion of the technical revolution it is imperative to increase consultation among managing staff, technicians and workers. They must all work out how to reorganize obsolete techniques as soon as possible. If everyone uses his intelligence and works hard no technical innovation will be impossible. Study should be intensified not only among technicians but also among management personnel and workers in order to promote a technical innovation movement. Unless the officials’ levels of general knowledge as well as their techniques and skills are improved, we will be unable to carry out the tasks of the technical revolution. I also study hard. Without studying I cannot lead either Party or state work. Since my study hours are limited I cannot sit day and night just reading encyclopedias or other technical books. Therefore, workers of the Heavy Industry and Agricultural Departments of the Party Central Committee select material for my convenience, which details the world trends in steel making and what kinds of advanced farming techniques are being introduced in other countries. And the International Department produces reviews on the international situation for me. Through these materials I quickly get to know the world trends in scientific development and the latest achievements of modern science and technology. So I resolve to go ahead continually in order to catch up with the advanced countries. 126 === [PDF page 135] === In factories, too, technicians should make resumes of materials which describe the improvements being made by other countries, so as to help management personnel and workers in their study, because managers, chief engineers and other managing staff and workers cannot devote all their time to study without doing their work. Thus technicians themselves will see them, and managing officials and workers will make use of them for their study. If they pursue the study of advanced technology in this way, all of them will strive for technical improvement. This will raise all factory workers’ technical expertise and lead to endless technical innovations. Needless to say, we cannot promote the technical innovation movement vigorously through technical knowledge only. Officials should know technology, but only when they know Party policies will they be ideologically prepared for technical innovations. This is why political study, along with technical study, must be increased. We regard the blooming shop of the Kangson Steel Plant as a model of technical innovations in our country. You must retain this honour and also carry on the movement for technical change with greater vigour in future. To continue, the care of equipment is a matter to which you should always pay great attention whether carrying out this year’s plan or running enterprises in future. To take good care of equipment is the most important condition for normalizing production and one of the principles in organizing production. If you do not observe this principle in enterprise management, production will not run smoothly. Equipment is as precious to workers as weapons are to troops. As a soldier who does not take good care of his weapon cannot fight well, so any worker who fails to look after his equipment properly cannot be successful in production. It is not without reason that when we visit a unit we judge its military preparedness after seeing how its soldiers keep their weapons. Good commanders and armymen always keep their weapons in good condition and clean their rifles and reset their guns soon after shooting, 127 === [PDF page 136] === so that they are constantly ready for use. It was our experience in guerrilla warfare that good fighters were always neatly dressed and cared for their weapons well. They usually carried needles and thread with them and if their uniforms were torn on the march they would quickly mend them during breaks. They had no trouble in marching and their appearance was always neat. However, rather lazy guerrillas marched without needles and thread and, even when their clothes were torn, they would only sleep during breaks, without thinking of making any repairs. Because they marched as they were, in torn clothes, the rents grew worse and worse and were worn to tatters. These men did not care properly either for their bodies or their rifles. Others would clean rifles with cloth and oil them immediately following an action, but lazy men did not clean their firearms. And so when they came across the enemy, they could not fight as well as they should have done because their rifles did not work effectively. The same is true of production. Only when workers take good care of equipment can production proceed smoothly. Workers at heating furnaces should always keep an eye on the condition of the furnaces and study how to produce more heat; and workers in all other branches, too, should always check their equipment and take a close interest in how to increase its usefulness. When equipment shows even the slightest sign of irregular behaviour or gets only a little out of order, it should be checked and repaired as soon as possible and faulty parts will have to be replaced by new ones in good time. This is the only way to make equipment work properly and to guarantee production. A long time ago the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee sent to all production units a decision on checking and repairing equipment in good time and keeping a three months’ reserve of spare parts. If steps are taken in keeping with this decision, nothing should go wrong with equipment and, should an accident occur, it will soon be rectified. At present ministry officials are under criticism and they are flustered because they have to face it all of a sudden after a long 128 === [PDF page 137] === interval, in the same way that you do not repair equipment at the right time. Since they have gone for many years without being criticized, the minister and other senior officials have accumulated a lot of dirt from bureaucratism. If the ministry Party committee or the economic departments of the Party Central Committee had continually criticized those officials’ shortcomings and washed off their bureaucratic dirt at the opportune moment nothing would have gone wrong, but because the dirt has been left intact until it grew fairly thick, it cannot be easily washed off now with soap and has to be scraped off with a knife. Taking care of equipment is no different from work with people. If you check and repair equipment in good time and have a steel-making furnace in reserve so that you can use it when another furnace is under repair and then repair and adapt another one, the steel output remains constant and no fluctuations occur in production. Another important thing in looking after equipment is to abide strictly by the technical regulations and the operational standards. People who know little should learn from well-informed persons who should teach them so that every producer will become familiar with these regulations and standards and rigidly observe them in production processes. Only when machinery and equipment are checked and repaired at the right time, enough spare parts are kept in reserve, and the technical regulations and operational standards are observed in this way is it possible to eradicate frequent accidents to machines, put production on a normal basis and fulfil the production plan at all costs. Now to another subject. Every effort must be made to lower the per-unit consumption of materials. We are still lagging behind other countries in living standards. If we are to catch up with the developed countries and become as prosperous as others as soon as possible, we have to produce more and build more. It is of great importance in this respect to increase our efforts to effect economies and cut down the per-unit consumption of materials in all sections of the national economy. This will help us to produce more goods with the existing materials. 129 === [PDF page 138] === At present the rate of consumption of materials at our industrial enterprises is higher, on the whole, than that of other countries. We should work hard to lower this rate so as to produce and construct as much as possible with the materials which are available. It is very good that you have now found enormous reserves for lowering the consumption of materials. You must never rest content with this but must continue to strive to cut down this consumption in future. Great attention should be directed especially to lowering the consumption of electric power, crude petroleum and gas. There is no need to take particular measures for lowering consumption. It will be sufficient for you to take such steps as introducing new tools, reconstructing equipment and improving the standard regulations of operation in accordance with advanced practice. The case of the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant shows this well. Yesterday at that plant a shop manager suggested that if silicon steel plates were not cut in the existing way but by a fan-shaped method, one sheet could be saved out of every two and a half or three sheets. So I asked the chief engineer if it was difficult to install a cutting apparatus for the purpose, and he replied that it was not particularly hard and that he could do it right away. Now workers had made this proposal to the factory leadership on several occasions over a long period, without any success. They even submitted it as a written paper, which they said was lost. Senior factory officials, practising bureaucratism like this, did not accept a good suggestion which would be conducive to saving materials. Several years ago we told officials of the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant that silicon steel plates should be used sparingly because they were a valuable imported material which was not produced in our country. In response to this appeal workers stirred themselves and sought ways of saving silicon steel plates, but a large amount of the priceless material was wasted over a period of years because senior officials of the factory did not provide them with simple equipment. 130 === [PDF page 139] === This attitude of indifference to the economical use of materials should be corrected as soon as possible and senior officials of all enterprises must lower the per-unit consumption of materials as much as they can by examining every possible way of effecting savings. Next, labour administration must be improved. The recent Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee declared that it was very important to improve labour administration and make the best use of the workforce. We should do a great deal to develop the nation’s economy and improve the people’s living standards. In order to increase the output of coal and minerals we have to develop many small and medium coal and ore mines, produce more timber and catch more fish in the sea. A great deal of work must be done in the rural areas to bring about an increase in agricultural production. Because of the lie of the land and the position as regards field reorganization in our country it will take us a long time to complete the rural technical revolution. What is worse, our country is short of manpower, this being a very acute problem. As you all know, our country maintains a large army as compared with the population. Since we are faced directly with US imperialism, the ringleader of world reaction, we have no choice but to strengthen our defences. As we are endeavouring to strengthen our defence potential while rapidly developing the economy and systematically improving the people’s standard of living, we naturally need more labour and this is where we feel the lack of manpower. At present the state is trying to solve this problem, but the managers, chief engineers and shop managers pay no attention to it at all. They have a bad habit of demanding more work hands immediately they are instructed to produce something, instead of trying to produce more by sparing as many man-days as possible. So they waste a great deal of labour. Although it is a matter of concern that more wages have to be paid by using additional workers, what pains us more deeply is that a lot of 131 === [PDF page 140] === labour is wasted on the one hand while it is in short supply on the other. At present, in fact, factories and enterprises have a great deal of reserves to economize on labour. Let me cite the Hwanghae Iron Works as an example. This works decided not to employ more hands for the new shops and, moreover, resolved to save 1,400 workers from among the existing workforce and build two small blast furnaces and hundreds of dwelling houses by using them. In order to do away with the waste of labour it is important to make full use of the 480-minute workday. You have to realize that the failure to work for 480 minutes means committing a serious crime against the state and the nation. While carrying out the technical revolution more efficiently as you have resolved to do this time, you will have to improve the organization and management of labour to make full use of the 480-minute workday, and you must use labour effectively by ensuring that all idlers work. In this way the Kangson Steel Plant will build and run the new workshops without employing additional workers and will carry out the production quota, even when it increases by hundreds of thousands of tons, with the existing workforce. To continue, the campaign to earn more foreign currency must be intensified. At the recent plenary meeting we assigned the Ministry of Metal Industry the task of earning 200 million won in foreign currency. For the ministry to achieve this all factories and workshops under its jurisdiction must work hard. If you work well the Kangson Steel Plant will find many ways of doing so. Seamless steel pipes or steel materials, though used in our country as well, can be sold for foreign currency. From these you must earn at least several million won. We must consider the earning of foreign currency to be a battle to climb a mountain peak and fulfil the assignment without fail. Now I am going to talk about the supply services. If you are going to provide the workers with a good supply service this factory will have to establish its own farm as a sideline. If there is 132 === [PDF page 141] === no vacant land nearby it does not matter if land a little further away has to be used. It is advisable to run the farm with hands transferred from their present workforce in the factory. It is possible for nine people to do the work which has so far been done by ten, and one man can be spared and employed at the farm. It will also be a good plan to mobilize all housewives to help on the farm during the sowing and weeding seasons. This sideline economy cannot be organized in the same way at all factories and enterprises. In coal and ore mines, for instance, pigs can be raised in large numbers, but this is impossible around here. You should organize it to suit the situation here. As for the Kangson Steel Plant in particular, it would be preferable to help nearby cooperative farms to raise per-unit-area yields of crops. If you will just organize labour effectively, you can easily help them. Of course, helping cooperative farms may seem superficially to be doing someone else’s work. But we must learn to think of the general economic life of the country, free from narrow self-centredness. If you help cooperative farms to raise their yields, this will be not only of great help to the country but very good for the workers as well. If cooperative farms produce grain and other crops in large quantities, feed will be that much more plentiful, and so very many more pigs and chickens can be raised. Then workers will be able to obtain more meat. It is, in fact, a very difficult project to manage large workers’ districts such as Kangson properly and provide supply services for the workers efficiently. Now there are two big factories in Kangso County and their workers and families alone number more than 70,000. Therefore, if the county runs its affairs like an ordinary county which has no big factories or enterprises, it will be unable to provide successful supply services for workers. As the manager of the Kangson Steel Plant proposed recently, we should study the structure of the Kangso County People’s Committee and also examine ways of guiding the workers’ districts. 133 === [PDF page 142] === Let us proceed. As many consumer goods shops or housewives’ workteams as possible must be run by dependents of the workers and office employees, so that there will not be any idlers and the workers’ standard of living can be greatly improved. At the moment the Party and the Government are studying how to raise the wages of workers and office employees during the Seven-Year Plan. As you know, in order to introduce higher wages we have first of all to increase the individual output value. Originally, the Seven-Year Plan envisaged a 220 percent increase in the value of the per-capita output. In line with this we anticipated raising the wages of factory and office workers generally by 30 to 35 per cent. However, the present output per capita is not rising because your labour administration was inefficient and you carried out no technical reconstruction in the past. As a result the question of a rise in wages is at stake. If we raise wages under the present situation as planned, this will put a strain on the state budget. In any event, if we fulfil the Seven-Year Plan, we will be able to increase the wages of all factory and office workers. For this reason you have to increase your efforts to boost production without taking on a single extra worker from this year on. Workers of the Hwanghae Iron Works have also determined not to increase the number of employees this year. If you fulfil the Seven-Year Plan with the existing workers, the per-capita output will greatly increase. Until this problem is solved, however, all housewives should be induced to work in consumer goods shops or housewives’ workteams or on cooperative farms in order to raise your living standards. In this way the workers’ monthly income per household should certainly reach more than 100 won at all costs. Only then can we improve the workers’ standard of living still more. To conclude, I would like to refer to ideological work. The key to the solution of all the problems we have discussed is effective Party work, particularly ideological work. If you are good at this work you will be able to solve all the problems discussed at the current meeting satisfactorily and bring about great changes in your 134 === [PDF page 143] === future work. The objective of ideological work is to get all the working people to take part in the fulfilment of revolutionary tasks voluntarily with great enthusiasm. We cannot make revolution with the idea that we work to earn money. We should steadily conduct ideological work among working people so that all of them show a high degree of revolutionary zeal with determination to engage in the revolution so long as they are provided with food, clothing and housing. The most important thing in ideological work is to arm all Party members and working people strongly with Party policies. Arming themselves with Party policies is the first and foremost duty of revolutionaries. Those ignorant of these policies can never carry them out and those who do not implement them can in no way contribute to revolutionary work, no matter how distinguished their talents. For the present we have to explain the spirit of the decision and conclusion of the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee throughout the masses–Party members and working people–so that all of them will voluntarily swing into action to implement it. As you all know, we have many things to do at the moment. We should build socialism in the northern half of Korea to make the people better off and reunify the country as soon as possible. In this you bear a heavy responsibility. As I mentioned at the previous plenary meeting, the quality of the steel you make is still low. What is the reason for this? It is just the fact that you are failing to do efficient ideological work among the working people. At present the valiant People’s Army men are standing to arms against the Yanks. To supply them with quality weapons is a noble duty of Party members, a duty of citizens and revolutionaries. If everyone works better, conscious of his duty, there is no reason why good-quality steel cannot be produced. If the technicians and workers tackle the problem with tenacity and make it with great care, 135 === [PDF page 144] === they will be quite able to produce good steel. Only three years of the Seven-Year Plan now remain. For these three years you must work very hard. First of all, you must raise the output of both steel and steel goods to the 400,000-ton level before the Party congress. If you fulfil this task and greet the Party congress with it, it will be a great gift to the congress. I firmly believe that in hearty response to the decision of the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee, you will make strenuous and unremitting efforts to achieve success in carrying out all the tasks devolving on the Kangson Steel Plant. 136 === [PDF page 145] === SOME OPINIONS RELATING TO THE CREATION OF THE FEATURE FILM THE PATH TO AWAKENING Talk with Film Workers after Viewing the First Copy of the Feature Film The Path to Awakening (Part 1) January 31, 1965 The feature film The Path to Awakening is good in every way–directing, acting, shooting, music and editing, and it flows smoothly. Dramatic scenes are natural and tense to the end. Character portrayal is also good. The leading character plays his part very well. His acting is quite natural: he expressed his feeling well, either by being shy or by crying as the circumstances demand. The theme song of the film is also fine. You have done a good thing in introducing the scene which shows the capitalist trying to deceive the students with “scholarship” and the scene of his murder of student Tong Hun when he fails to bribe him. Notwithstanding this, the film has some shortcomings which must be rectified. Its worst fault is that it does not reflect the anti-US idea strongly enough. It does not fully explain why the south Korean people should hate the US imperialists and why they should fight against them. You ought to show clearly how harshly they are humiliated and maltreated by the US imperialists. The tragic scene which shows the younger brother of a blind girl being run over and killed by an American jeep is not portrayed skilfully. When they see the American jeep killing a 137 === [PDF page 146] === passing boy, people must be indignant and hate the Americans; but many of the characters appearing in the film are silent, cold and devoid of expression. If things are presented like this all the south Korean people will seem to be powerless. We should describe the struggle of the south Korean people faithfully. Furthermore, this film does not deal adequately with the dramatic line that shows how the young people, who have so far acted as their youthful mood dictates, are united by organization and educated and awakened in a revolutionary way. No man is born a revolutionary. One can set out on the road of struggle either under the revolutionary influence or after being awakened gradually while leading a humiliating life subjected to exploitation and oppression. This film must clearly show how thoughtless young people are roused through revolutionary education to set out on the road of struggle and grow into revolutionaries in the course of it. The friendship between Jin Myong and Tong Hun should be treated realistically. When Tong Hun is dismissed from school because he is unable to pay the “school fees”, Jin Myong says to him: “You go to school; I will earn your school fees by taking a job. You attend school first and I will do so after you.” There is no truth in his words. Jin Myong cannot translate his promise into action when he is not even in a position to take care of his own mother who is living alone in the country suffering from hunger. Moreover, Jin Myong even sells his blood to obtain the school fees for Tong Hun. This cannot be typical of friendship in a capitalist society. In that kind of society friendship is no more than humanitarian. If the humanitarian friendship in a capitalist society is so deep, is it any different from revolutionary comradeship in a socialist society? This film does not make clear what are the evil aspects in capitalist morals and what is the difference between capitalist and communist morals. It has overexaggerated humanitarian friendship. If Ok Nyo sold her blood for Tong Hun, her lover, it would be understandable. Therefore, it would be advisable to describe the friendship between Jin Myong and Tong Hun in such a way that Jin 138 === [PDF page 147] === Myong contributes to Tong Hun’s school fees the money he earns by working when he sees Ok Nyo selling her blood to pay the fees. Furthermore, in the film the workers who are suffering from burdensome toil and hunger have a discussion in their living shack, cursing and becoming angry about south Korean society and longing for the northern half of the country. However, Jin Myong, a member of the reading circle, does not utter a single word. This is also wrong. The leader of the students’ reading circle is not described well, either. When the question of admitting Tong Hun into the reading circle is raised the leader refuses. It is a wrong supposition. To all intents and purposes, the reading circle is a mass organization for educating and rousing many people. Therefore, the leader must be shown as a man who tries hard to admit more people into his organization. What is worse, when the hero is arrested and imprisoned by the enemy, the leader of the reading circle runs away by train. You should not present him as a coward. The scene which depicts the hero, Jin Myong, meeting Thae Su, a railwayman who led the strike, in prison is very artificial and contrived. Still worse is that Thae Su’s character as a worker is poorly portrayed. There are some faults in what he says to Jin Myong in prison. If Thae Su is to exert a revolutionary influence on Jin Myong, he should tell him: “In the past the Japanese imperialists put me in prison on the charge of being a communist and suppressed the revolutionaries, but they were finally destroyed. Today the Americans are repressing us revolutionaries, but they will also inevitably be annihilated before long.” You should give a better presentation of Yong Ae’s character. She is the daughter of a doctor who has a national conscience. She is of middle-class origin. Therefore, the US troops’ atrocities should stimulate her national conscience. She should feel repulsion towards south Korean society. Besides, being a female, she should be frightened by terrible scenes and keep her eyes shut. However, Yong Ae is completely impassive, even when she witnesses the American soldiers’ outrage and when a Korean boy is 139 === [PDF page 148] === run over and killed by the US army jeep. Considering that she is the daughter of a doctor with a national conscience, she has been shown as a rather insensitive girl. In this scene she should be horribly shocked and feel national indignation. In the ensuing scene showing the reception room of her house, it would be a good idea to make her sing a melancholy song. In her conversation with her mother, Yong Ae should say that there was a terrible accident in the street that day, but that some people were completely unfeeling about it. This will express her repulsion towards south Korean society. So far as resentment and curses against south Korean society are concerned, the portrayal of Ki Nam, a worker, is successful. But the portrayal of Yong Ae is poor in this respect. Another shortcoming in her role is that too much stress is put on the love story. Love between Jin Myong and Yong Ae should by all means show that the boy enlists the girl in revolutionary work. Chased by policemen, Jin Myong hides in the storehouse of Yong Ae’s home. When he leaves, the girl impatiently asks if he has anything more to say. In this scene, he should ask her to deliver the book he is carrying to the leader of the reading circle if she sincerely sympathizes with him. Then the girl should hand over the secret book to the leader as requested by Jin Myong and inform him of his arrest. If you show Yong Ae carrying out the first task given by Jin Myong like this, you would draw her into the revolution. When Yong Ae calls on the leader of the students’ reading circle, he meets her in the presence of other members of the underground organization. He should not do so. It runs counter to the principle of the underground struggle to meet a stranger in such a place while under the strict surveillance of the enemy. The scenes dealing with underground activity should conform to reality. Yong Ae should inform the leader of the reading circle of Jin Myong’s arrest, and he should report it to the chief of the organization who should be made to start a campaign to release Jin Myong. And in the scene of the prison interview, Yong Ae should tell Jin Myong that she has carried out his errand. Only then will he be able to 140 === [PDF page 149] === fight staunchly with courage and confidence even in prison, aware that the organization is alive, and go so far as to write on the prison wall the slogan “Long live the reunification of the country!” Further, in this scene Jin Myong ought to tell Yong Ae: “Our struggle is not over; we will fight to build a new society; you are taking the right course; let’s fight together for the new society.” This will make her resolve to keep up the struggle. When her mother tries to dissuade her from falling in love with Jin Myong, a revolutionary, Yong Ae should not say: “You said you also loved dad once, didn’t you?” She should say it this way: “There is a difference in the love you had for father in the past and what I feel for Jin Myong now. He is fighting for justice.” The office of the wealthy capitalist in the film is too shabby. It is not like the office of someone who is carrying out transactions worth tens of millions of dollars with capitalists in New York. In the scene showing the negotiation between the strikers and the manager of the company, you should introduce more than two workers’ representatives. If you rectify the shortcomings in line with what I have mentioned here, the film will be a good piece which deals with the south Korean people’s struggle. Part 2 of this film which is still to be produced should describe the underground struggle of the hero. To make a good film it is essential to write a good scenario in one go. Revision after the film is finished requires a great deal of work and time. Therefore, production should start only after good scenarios are written. In view of the situation prevailing in our country today, the film The Path to Awakening is of great value in educating the working people and youth in a revolutionary manner. At present our factories and enterprises are launching a widespread movement to register in the roll of their workteams the names of those patriotic youth and students of south Korea who fell while fighting valiantly for national reunification and do their share to increase production. When this film comes out it will touch the heartstrings of our working people and 141 === [PDF page 150] === youth and inspire them powerfully to the struggle for national reunification. You should complete this film quickly and show it in all the cinemas throughout the country on the occasion of the anniversary of April 19. And factories, enterprises and organs at different levels should convene frequent meetings for recounting their impressions of the film and so educate all the working people so that they will make harder efforts to support the south Korean people’s struggle and reunify the country, without giving way to idleness and slackness. When this film is put into circulation, newspapers and other press media must introduce and propagate it widely. 142 === [PDF page 151] === FERTILIZER IMMEDIATELY MEANS RICE AND RICE, SOCIALISM Concluding Speech at an Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee of the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory February 9, 1965 During the past week we have worked here with you. We attended the Party cell meetings and the factory Party committee meeting and heard the speeches of many comrades. At these meetings we were able to see that all the Party members and employees of the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory are deeply inspired to implement the decision of the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Party. All the factory’s Party members cooperated energetically in our guidance on this occasion and took an active part in the discussion of problems. The meetings of the Party cells and factory Party committee criticized the shortcomings revealed in past work, gave a clear direction of work to be undertaken in the future and found many reserves to carry out the Seven-Year Plan before the set time. I am highly satisfied with this. Fertilizer is of very great importance in the building of socialism. Long ago I said, “Fertilizer immediately means rice and rice, socialism.” As you know, the aim of building socialism is to enable the people to lead a happy life, well-fed and well-dressed. The most important 143 === [PDF page 152] === thing in the life of the people is food–mainly rice. And to produce a large quantity of rice, there have to be adequate supplies of fertilizer. An important task facing communists after liberating people from the colonial subjugation of the imperialists and the exploitation and oppression of the landlords and capitalists is to carry out national economic construction well and thus raise the living standards of the people and free the working people from arduous toil. The problem which should be given special attention here is to eliminate the backwardness of the country areas left over by the former exploiting society. Without doing this we cannot develop agricultural production nor improve the people’s life. As is pointed out in the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country, the important factor in liquidating this backwardness is to push ahead with the rural technical revolution. Irrigation, mechanization and electrification are also important in this regard, but what is still more significant is the use of chemicals, which is the most powerful means of increasing agricultural production. At present we are able to produce as much rice as we want if only we have fertilizer. On hearing of our arrival in Hamhung a few days ago, an old country man came to see me. I could not meet him because I was in session at that time. I was told that before starting to return home he said that he could produce as much rice as needed if he had the fertilizer and asked for more of it. I think this is not his feeling only, but the unanimous desire of all the farmers. At the moment they are eagerly waiting for you to send them more fertilizer. You might say that the attainment of the goal for grain envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan depends entirely on the increase of fertilizer output. Thanks to your positive cooperation, during our current guidance we have found many reserves to increase the production of fertilizer. The Hungnam Fertilizer Factory will be able to turn out 756,800 tons of fertilizer in the 1965-66 manuring year and 841,000 tons in the 1966-67 year. If this amount of fertilizer is produced we shall be able to farm very 144 === [PDF page 153] === well from next year. Then we shall be able to apply 200 kilogrammes of nitrogenous fertilizer per hectare on maize fields. We have so far spread 120 kilogrammes of fertilizer per hectare and had yields averaging over two tons throughout the country. Therefore, if we apply 80 kilogrammes more fertilizer we shall definitely be able to harvest 2.5 tons of grain. Then we can produce at least 1.75 million tons of grain from 700,000 hectares of maize. Until now we have given only 250 kilogrammes per hectare on rice fields, but next year we will be able to apply 550 kilogrammes. If we add a little potash fertilizer and superphosphate of lime to this figure we will be able to turn out more than 4-4.2 tons of rice per hectare on average. If we produce 4 tons of rice per hectare on a nationwide scale the total amount will be 2.8 million tons and if we obtain yields of 4.2 tons, the figure will rise to about 3 million tons. At present our country has approximately 300,000 hectares of land suitable for two-crop farming. If we apply 400 kilogrammes of fertilizer per hectare on these fields we will be able to reap at least 3 tons of grain, and more than 4 tons if we are successful. In this case we can get 900,000-1,200,000 tons of grain from the land given over to two-crop farming. Next year we shall be able to produce no less than 5.5 million tons of grain if maize, rice and the second crops are all put together. With this amount it will be possible to let all the people eat their fill even if there is an increase in our population in the future, and also use about 400,000-500,000 tons of grain as fodder for domestic animals. If we feed domestic animals with the grain fodder mixed with some hay we can produce 300,000-400,000 tons of meat and also raise chickens, dairy cows and the like in greater numbers. If we have fertilizer we can produce much more fruit. At present we have about 30,000 hectares of productive orchards. If we apply one ton of fertilizer to every hectare we can reap a considerable amount of fruit. With plenty of fertilizer we can not only solve the grain problem but produce more meat and fruit and so raise the living standards of the 145 === [PDF page 154] === people remarkably. That is why we say, “Fertilizer immediately means rice and rice, socialism”. Your contribution to increasing the agricultural production by turning out large quantities of fertilizer is not only of great significance in building socialism in our country but also in demonstrating the advantages of socialist rural economy internationally. Now some socialist countries achieve success in industrial construction, but not in the agricultural sector. In consequence, the enemies of socialism are slandering the socialist system, claiming that “Communists are not capable of solving the agrarian problem” and “The collective economic system is not suitable for agriculture.” Under these circumstances communists are faced with the urgent task of frustrating the attacks of the enemy and showing the advantages of socialist rural economy. Therefore, last year we published the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country which clarify the correct way to solve the rural question under socialism. The theses are now causing a great deal of reaction in many countries of the world. Now the world’s people are closely watching how we are putting into practice the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country. We must put the tasks advanced in the rural theses into effect with all our might and main. Here you have a heavy responsibility. Deeply aware of the political and economic significance of fertilizer production, you must try hard to fulfil the assignments of increasing the production of fertilizer which you yourselves have determined. What, then, should be done to carry out your assignments? First, you have to raise the Party spirit and class awareness of Party members and workers alike. For the implementation of the assignments for increased fertilizer production we need both techniques and materials, but what is more important is to improve the Party spirit and class awareness of the Party members and the workers. When they are soundly prepared politically nothing is impossible. This is eloquently proved by the fighting experience of our people who 146 === [PDF page 155] === repulsed the invasion of the US imperialists and defended the country’s independence. People all over the world could not imagine that American imperialism would suffer a crushing defeat in the Korean war. Then, what made it possible to win the war against these imperialists who boasted of being the “strongest” in the world? It was the indomitable fighting spirit of the Korean people. All the foreign visitors to our country call our success in economic construction a miracle and think it is a mystery how we have managed to reconstruct and develop our country in so short a period of time, the country which the Americans clamoured would not be able to rise again, even in a hundred years. But there is nothing mysterious about this. It is precisely the high Party spirit and class awareness of our Party members and working people that made it possible to create such a miracle. When we got down to reconstruction on the rubble after the war, our people were indeed faced with innumerable difficulties. At that time I came to this factory; then I had to talk with the workers in the open air because there were no buildings. Probably some comrades who attended that meeting are present here today. Then I inspected the Hungnam College of Technology and saw the students taking lessons in the corridor because their classrooms were utterly destroyed. The postwar difficulties cannot be described. However, we were not disheartened in the least, nor did we yield to difficulties. Our heroic working class displayed an unsubmissive revolutionary spirit and bravely marched ahead putting their trust in the Party and following its line. As a result, they rebuilt the devastated factories and erected many new ones. When we determined to build a vinalon factory people the world over doubted its feasibility. However, our builders and the workers in the machine industry worked hard with a firm determination not to fail to carry out the assignment given by the Party whatever the difficulties, and built the largest vinalon factory in the world in a little more than one year. If we had remained dejected, waiting only for foreign aid, we would neither have reconstructed the devastated economy nor built new, modern factories. 147 === [PDF page 156] === Those who are lacking in Party and class spirit cannot be loyal to the Party and the revolution to the end nor overcome the difficulties and trials they encounter. Wherever things do not run smoothly and Party policies are not implemented properly, officials are bound to lack Party and class spirit. The reason for the unsatisfactory work in the Ministry of Electricity and Coal Industries and its failure to boost coal output in the past was precisely the lack of this spirit on the part of senior personnel in the ministry. For this very reason they did not believe in Party policies and went the length of openly asserting that the attainment of the production goal of 25 million tons of coal was impossible. Many a time the Party emphasized the need to develop medium and small coal mines extensively, as well as large ones. But senior officials in the Ministry of Electricity and Coal Industries did not accept this. The cadres of the coal industry did not buckle down to their work with a resolve to implement the tasks assigned by the Party. On the contrary, they haggled over Party policy. As a consequence, production inevitably stood still and, because of the shortage of coal, many factories and enterprises, including the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory, could not produce at a normal rate. This is the very serious offence committed because of an absence of Party spirit, class spirit and popular spirit. As the facts show, senior officials cannot carry out the Party policies correctly without cultivating Party, class and popular spirit. The officials of the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory have been entrusted with a difficult plan of fertilizer production. Though it is difficult, it can certainly be carried out if all Party members and employees display a high Party and class spirit with a resolve to fulfil the assignment given by the Party without fail. Whenever one has to launch an arduous campaign one is required to show a high Party spirit. To increase the Party and class spirit is the important duty set before Party members and workers of this factory who are to carry out the difficult plan of fertilizer production. 148 === [PDF page 157] === One of the problems which were emphasized as important at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee was to raise the Party, class and popular spirit of the cadres. All Party members and working people should endeavour to increase their Party and class spirit. We have still many things to do. We are in duty bound to reunify the country and at the same time to carry out the world revolution. Even though we may achieve the country’s reunification in our generation, we might not be able to accomplish the world revolution. Therefore, we must not only constantly heighten our own Party spirit without idling away even a moment of our time but also educate the younger generation so that they take over the revolutionary work which we will leave unfinished. Secondly, you should normalize production and increase the use of the existing equipment to the maximum. It can be said that there are two ways of implementing your plan for increased fertilizer production. One is to put production on a normal basis and make the most use of the equipment and the other is to hasten building operations and so provide a greater capacity for production. Both of them are important. But you should always direct your primary attention to increasing the utilization of the existing equipment. In the days gone by, the Hwanghae Iron Works and some other enterprises expanded construction projects and paid little attention to the effective use of their equipment, with the result that both construction and production suffered. We must learn a lesson from this: You do your work badly if you only concentrate on new construction projects and neglect to make good use of the existing equipment, which is tantamount to losing the domestic pig in an attempt to catch a wild boar. Catching a wild boar is also necessary, but what is more important is to look after the domestic pig. You must promote factory construction to the best of your ability and simultaneously concentrate your main efforts on stabilizing production and making the best use of the existing equipment. 149 === [PDF page 158] === You should make certain that machines continue to operate without breaking down and that all other equipment works at full capacity, by checking and repairing the existing equipment well and stocking a sufficient reserve of spare parts. For the factories and enterprises which consume a great deal of power like the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory it is of very great importance in raising the utilization of equipment to organize production in accordance with the seasonal nature of the power supply. In the past this factory did not repair and service its equipment in the dry season when less power is produced but did this work in the rainy season when comparatively more power is produced, thus failing to produce much more fertilizer which would otherwise have been quite possible. What is the use of stopping machines to repair them when there is an abundant supply of power, instead of doing it when they are not in full operation because of a power shortage? You should do away with these thoughtless practices in organizing production, concentrate on repairing the equipment in the dry season as far as possible and operate it at full stretch in the rainy season. Thirdly, you must forcefully accelerate construction work. With the improvement in the use of existing equipment alone you cannot attain the goal of fertilizer production set out by the Party. While raising the utility rate of equipment you must build many new fertilizer factories. That is why our Party took measures to concentrate investments on the attainment of the production goal of fertilizer as well as steel. The Hungnam Fertilizer Factory is entrusted with a huge construction task. It has to finish the second-stage project for the gasification of anthracite, continue the third-stage project and build a urea fertilizer factory. Originally it was planned to build this factory in Aoji and it had already been designed. However, since the Aoji Chemical Factory is far behind schedule in carrying out the project for the anthracite gasification which should be done before the construction of the urea fertilizer factory, we are going to give this task to the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory whose workers have great 150 === [PDF page 159] === enthusiasm and a wealth of experience in anthracite gasification and fertilizer production. It is true to say that we can attain the goal of fertilizer production even without building the urea fertilizer factory. However, if we build it we shall be able to produce more fertilizer and also solve many other problems. The capacity of the factory is 80,000 tons. If you work well, it may be increased to 100,000 tons. When this figure is reached we can not only use urea as fertilizer but also as a material in making adhesives and as fodder for animals. I was told that if a milch cow is fed with fodder mixed with some urea it produces much more milk. The Hungnam Fertilizer Factory should finish the second-stage project for anthracite gasification now under way within the first half of this year and undertake the third-stage project at the same time as building the urea fertilizer factory. You must complete the construction of this factory by October so that it can start operations immediately after the arrival and installation of the equipment. It is a very difficult task to complete these huge construction projects within the set time. The builders must fight once again in the same spirit that was displayed in the days of postwar reconstruction and in the construction of the vinalon factory. The construction work should not be left to the builders alone, but all the employees of the factory should give active assistance in this work. In this way you must ensure that the huge construction task is implemented at all costs. Fourthly, you must press ahead strongly with the technical revolution. The Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee decreed that it was an important task to carry the technical revolution ahead more vigorously in all sectors of the national economy. Without doing this you cannot increase the use made of existing equipment, nor augment production and further develop the economy. The technical revolution is not proceeding smoothly in the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory. This factory did not even repair the compressor made in the 1920s properly, let alone rebuild it, with the result that it cannot even reach its capacity. Of course, it would be 151 === [PDF page 160] === difficult to make such equipment as a compressor exceed its rated capacity. But you should make it work at full capacity and it is high time that you produced new equipment with a larger capacity than the old one on your own. It is disgraceful for the working class of Hungnam not to make the compressor built in the 1920s even reach its full capacity. The Hungnam Fertilizer Factory has favourable conditions for carrying out the technical revolution satisfactorily. It has a large repair and power-supply shop with a great deal of equipment. It has also a large number of highly skilled workers and its workmen possess as high a level of competence as the skilled workers of the Ryongsong Machine Factory. The reason that the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory with such favourable conditions is not making progress with the technical revolution is that its officials still have a mystical outlook with regard to technique. Therefore, in order to carry on the technical revolution at full force, the remaining fear of technique in their minds must first be thoroughly done away with. It is a mistake to think that technology can be developed only by a special kind of man. There is no special breed of genius in this world. If we destroy the fear of technique and boldly buckle down to this work, we can certainly catch up with technically-developed countries. We should make strenuous efforts to overtake these countries as soon as possible. You must make further improvements in scientific research. Only when we develop science and technology can we make the country prosperous and the people lead a better life. If we develop them in our country which has abundant resources we can lead a plentiful life without envying others. The Hungnam district is not only the greatest centre of the chemical industry in our country but also a centre for scientific research. There are many scientific research institutions here including the Hamhung branch under the Academy of Sciences and also a large number of scientists and technicians are concentrated. 152 === [PDF page 161] === The scientists and technicians in Hungnam have so far had great success with their research. In the past it seemed that it would be impossible to solve either the problem of slaking carbide by oxygen heat treatment or the problem of anthracite gasification. But their research has been completed and now it is possible to use its results in production. The production of vinalon has been put on a normal basis and a solid foundation has been laid which will enable us to produce up to 20,000 tons in future. Research on vichlon is also making good progress and now it has reached the stage where it is possible to build an interim pilot plant. Research on synthetic rubber has also progressed rapidly and so the way ahead has been opened to build a large synthetic rubber factory. I am very satisfied with this splendid success achieved in scientific research by the scientists and technicians in Hungnam. But we can never rest on our laurels. We have still got a long way to go before we reach the world level of scientific development. The scientists and technicians cannot rest content with their initial success in research work but must continue their strenuous efforts to conquer the fortress of science. The primary task in strengthening scientific research is for the scientists to establish the habit of studying and work hard to improve their qualifications. At present many of them are not serious about their studies. If they do not study they will remain ignorant of the world trends in scientific development and cannot succeed in their research work. This habit of studying ought to be firmly established amongst scientists. To this end they should be strictly controlled. This spring the Party Central Committee and the Cabinet are going to institute a new state examination system for the qualification of scientists and technicians. Needless to say, this is only one of the controls to be used to establish the habit of studying. The problem cannot be solved unless the scientists themselves study willingly. Everyone ought to study, but scientists and technicians in particular must study harder. Conditions for scientific research will have to be improved. For 153 === [PDF page 162] === example, the research work on kilning carbide by oxygen heat treatment cannot be successfully completed, although it is possible for it to be done, because kilns are not built and oxygen is not supplied promptly. From now on preference must be given to supplying items which are necessary for scientific research. It is important to establish Juche in scientific research. This means putting the main emphasis on scientific research for developing one’s national economy with one’s own raw materials. Industry should always be developed by drawing on one’s own domestic raw materials. At least 60-70 per cent of the raw materials should be supplied locally. It is not sound to depend entirely on obtaining materials from others when developing industry. Relying on raw materials supplied by capitalist countries is particularly dangerous. If one depends on them for raw materials one is liable to be under their economic control. An important task facing scientists today is to concentrate on research on developing industry using our own raw materials. Scientists and technicians in the chemical industry in particular have a lot of work to do in this field. The successful kilning of carbide by using oxygen heat treatment is a good example of establishing Juche in the development of science. The production of carbide by this method has opened up a bright prospect for developing the chemical industry through the use of limestone which is abundant in our country. We must continue to develop the chemical industry towards producing goods which are essential for our people, using our local raw materials. Scientists and technicians should also direct their attention to the development of a petro-chemical industry. In the future we will build a refinery to process oil. This process in itself is not difficult. The most important equipment is a distillatory tower. This problem can easily be solved by copying the designs of an installation in some other country and building it ourselves, or by importing one. The importance does not lie in processing oil, but in developing the chemical industry based on this operation. If we develop the chemical 154 === [PDF page 163] === industry by using the by-products of oil processing, we can obtain resins and various other raw materials necessary for the production of consumer goods. If we do not develop the petro-chemical industry but just extract gasoline or heavy oil from crude oil, it will not be so beneficial for the country. Scientists and technicians should always be seeking ways and means for the development of the petro-chemical industry. Everyone knows that the by-products obtained from this process are used in the chemical industry. Consequently, you will have no difficulty in solving this problem provided you make the effort to do so. From now on, you must read a great deal about this branch of the chemical industry and train technical personnel with foresight. Scientists and technicians in the chemical industry must carry out intensive research on chemical fodder and growth stimulants needed for agricultural development. It can be said that the future will be the atomic age and the chemical age. For this reason we have to concentrate on the development of the chemical industry and we must also increase research in this field. Your next need is to make the most economical use of your labour force and to increase the output value per employee. We have an acute shortage of manpower but there are very many things for us to do. We have to develop coal and other mines, undertake a huge capital construction programme and catch large quantities of fish. But we have a shortage of labour. The only way to ease the labour shortage in our country today is to economize on manpower as much as possible and greatly increase the output value per employee. All economic sectors should introduce mechanization and automation on a wide scale, organize the labour force rationally and make use of every possible way of cutting down on the use of labour. In future the demand for the manpower required to run the new workshops which are to be established as well as those shops whose production is to be increased will be met basically from the workers saved by the factory itself through the reduction of the management 155 === [PDF page 164] === and non-productive labour and the rationalization of production. The next task is to establish strict rules and order at the factory and strengthen discipline. Where strict order and discipline are observed, no accidents occur and production proceeds smoothly, but where disorder and indiscipline are found, frequent accidents of one kind or another happen and production suffers. In addition, where there are good order and discipline there is no chance that enemy spies, subversive elements or saboteurs will gain entry. Otherwise alien elements could make their way in and engage in treacherous activities. It is true that all factories and enterprises should enforce firm discipline, but more stringent order and discipline need to be practised in chemical factories in particular since they have a greater proportion of work which might be hazardous to health and a greater risk of accidents. Chemical factories should ensure that all workers strictly observe the technical norms and the standard operating regulations, establish strict discipline for the changing of shifts, keep unnecessary people out of the working areas and should endeavour to set up rigid order and discipline in all workshops and units. Next, great attention has to be given to the establishment of clean and tidy ways of living and production. The Hungnam Fertilizer Factory is one of our largest factories with a high level of mechanization and automation. It should, therefore, be a model for other factories in establishing hygienic production as well as in production itself. However, at the moment this is below standard. The factory yard is left untidy and the equipment is also kept in disorder. The pavements which are travelled by many people are clean, but the corners are dirty. If the tower of the ammonium nitrate shop were to be painted it would be pleasant to the eye and clean. But it has been left uncared-for and so looks unsightly. Some people say that the working class can live fecklessly, but they are greatly mistaken. In the days immediately after liberation the fellow O Ki Sop thought it was something to be proud of to go around 156 === [PDF page 165] === with his hair kept long and his mustache unshaven. One day I dropped in at his office and found him looking slovenly, with shaggy hair. He was reading a book at his desk which was dusty and littered with crumbs of the bread he had been eating. So I asked him why he was so careless about hygiene. He answered that he had been accustomed to living like the proletariat. So I severely criticized him and told him not to insult the working class. The working class are the noblest, the most cultured people in the world. All the magnificent high-rise buildings where the capitalists and the nobility live are built by the working class; the cars they ride in are all made by the working class and all the material and cultural wealth of society are created by the working class. It is absurd to claim that they are lazy and have a low cultural level. In the past our working men could not afford to wear clean clothes and pay proper attention to their housekeeping because, deprived of everything by the capitalists, they had nothing at their disposal. It was not because they did not know how to live hygienically. Why, then, should our working class continue to live in a slovenly way without getting rid of their old living habits, the remnants of the capitalist society, now that they have taken power in their hands and become the master of the country? We must completely do away with the old style of living. As befitting the advanced class of our society and the class which is leading the revolution, the working class must scrupulously build up the economic life of the country and acquire the habit of living and working hygienically. By saying that you should live a cultured life we do not mean that you should be dressed sumptuously like capitalists and live a dissipated life. It will be enough if people keep their dwelling houses and villages in good condition and keep themselves neat and tidy, dressing themselves in freshly-washed and properly ironed clothes, even if they are made of cotton and staple fibre. The anti-Japanese guerrillas always lived in an orderly fashion despite the fact that they fought Japanese imperialism under difficult conditions for 15 long years. They used to dig a well and build a lavatory, keeping their surroundings clean even when they camped 157 === [PDF page 166] === overnight. And whenever they had spare time they would mend their clothes and keep themselves tidy. Under whatever circumstances communists should acquire the habit of living and working in a clean and ordered way. Anyone who fails to keep himself clean can neither be a good housekeeper nor a good worker at his job. The factory which neglects to keep its equipment and workplaces clean cannot expect to be successful in production. Only when the equipment is taken good care of and the factory is kept clean and tidy will production be trouble-free and quality goods be made. Where there is no culture in production it is impossible to keep production normal and manufacture goods of high quality. It is not difficult to establish culture in production. Tidying the factory yard and taking good care of equipment does not require much in the way of labour, materials or funds. It can easily be done if the factory’s senior personnel and employees always attend to it. The Hungnam Fertilizer Factory should pack fertilizer properly. Many times I have pointed out the need to pack fertilizer in kraft paper, but the factory is still carelessly putting it into straw bags. These are unsightly and the working area is dirty; moreover, the wastage of fertilizer is high. If you were to pack fertilizer in kraft paper it would be pleasant to look at, there would be no wastage, and farmers would be relieved of the burden of making straw bags. Had the economic personnel tackled this task with determination, the problem of packing fertilizer in kraft paper would have been solved long ago. We imported the equipment for a kraft paper factory, but do not yet produce it because we have not built the factory. The State Planning Commission and other organs concerned should take active measures to hasten its construction. Our workers should pay greater attention to both the assiduous management of their factory and of the country’s economic life. As was stressed at the recent plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee, we cannot live in a cultured way nor build a communist society without managing the economic life of the country very carefully. And yet some 158 === [PDF page 167] === of our workers are still indifferent to the proper management of it. In Hamhung such practices as neglecting to plant trees on mountains and building houses haphazardly in the middle of rice fields still exist. We should fight resolutely against such practices which are not concerned about the economic life of the country. Next, welfare services must be improved. This is an undertaking to take care of the workers’ life; it is a very important work which has a great influence on production. If the senior officials in factories and enterprises neglect this work the working men cannot live a stable life nor give full play to their insight and zeal in production. That is why these services are not an undertaking to be left to the deputy manager for welfare services only but are an important political work to which all the factory’s senior officials should always give their attention. The most important thing in welfare services is to provide the workers with sufficient food and ample rest and thus ensure that they have the necessary conditions for getting over their fatigue quickly and gaining new strength. At present some managers and chief engineers of factories and enterprises only work people but do not think of how to feed them well or give them adequate rest. Take the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory, for example. The Party sent dairy cows to this factory long ago to supply milk to its workers. However, the people here have not even looked after them as they should. Both the senior economic personnel and Party workers talk a great deal about the importance of welfare services. But in fact they pay little attention to the rest and lives of the working men. Even under the difficult conditions of the late Fatherland Liberation War the commanders of the People’s Army took the utmost care of their men’s lives. Even on Height 1211, the grim battlefield where tens of thousands of cannon and bomb shells dropped and the enemy attempted scores of attacks every day, they provided the soldiers with warm soup made of bean sprouts grown by themselves and built bathhouses so that they could wash themselves. In their leisure between battles the soldiers made musical instruments with 159 === [PDF page 168] === which to sing and dance. Because they had full rest even amid the fierce battles, the soldiers could always fight the enemy bravely with redoubled courage. Looking back upon the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the days of the Fatherland Liberation War, all good commanders showed deep concern for the lives of their men and particularly provided them with ample rest. Incompetent commanders only thought of combat missions and could not think about providing rest for their men, whereas competent ones did not fail to give their men a rest at definite intervals, both on the march and while carrying out combat missions. Only when the men are given ample rest can they carry out their military duties successfully. The same is true for production. Production does not increase just because the workers are made to work for long hours. Let the men work while they should work, but give them rest when necessary. In this way they can work full of vigour and increase productivity. During my recent inspection of ore mines I once again felt that senior officials in mines were very little concerned about the workers’ relaxation. This indifference on the part of the manager or the chief engineer or the Party committee chairman proves that they lack humanity. If senior officials in enterprises sincerely value and love workers as their revolutionary comrades they will not be lighthearted about their recreation. It would not be so difficult to provide rest for workers at a coal or ore mine if senior officials were not indifferent to this and did not fail to give the matter any thought. Build a rest room at the pit, let the workers have warm rice and soup and take a rest there after working several hours and, at the same time, make good preparations to resume their work; then they will regain their strength and achieve better working results. Whatever else they might do, senior personnel should first pay attention to the living conditions of the workers. They should particularly strive to provide facilities to feed the workers well and give them ample rest. Nothing is impossible if senior personnel work 160 === [PDF page 169] === in the spirit with which they grew bean sprouts to feed the men and got them to take a bath on Height 1211 during the Fatherland Liberation War. These officials should do everything possible to make better arrangements to feed and rest the workers. In conclusion, the habit of studying needs to be established amongst the workers. I have been told that there are a large number of new workers in the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory. In order to get them to perform their duties as soon as possible, the factory should establish the practice of learning with greater zeal and the responsible teaching of others. I think that if the factory were to encourage the workers to study hard it would not take three years to train unskilled men to become skilled workers. Those skilled workers who joined the factory before the others ought to try to improve their skills still more and, at the same time, teach the unskilled workers the standard operating regulations and the technical norms, thus raising their technical expertise; the unskilled workers who have recently joined the factory should study hard to become skilled at the earliest possible date. To all intents and purposes our current guidance aims not at finding your faults but at helping you work well. During the guidance many good suggestions were made for the improvement of factory work. If the Ministry of Chemical Industry, too, give guidance and assistance to the factory in this way annually, production will certainly be normalized and the technical revolution, manpower administration and the work of establishing culture in production and all the other work of the enterprise will run smoothly. You should hold Party meetings, and, basing your discussions on the tasks set forth during our current guidance, you must accurately replan this year’s quarterly and monthly plans for production, the repair of equipment, technical development and for the supply of manpower and materials, and make every effort to fulfil them. I firmly believe that you will attain the goal of fertilizer production for the Seven-Year Plan one year ahead of schedule and so live up to the expectations of the Party with credit. 161 === [PDF page 170] === ON IMPROVING HIGHER EDUCATION Speech at the General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the Ministry of Higher Education February 23, 1965 1. ON WORKING-CLASSIZING AND REVOLUTIONIZING INTELLECTUALS The Ministry of Higher Education is an important state body in charge of training cadres. The task of the ministries in charge of production is no more than that of giving sound economic and technological guidance to factories and enterprises. However, the fundamental responsibility of the Ministry of Higher Education is to give good education to people. The ministry is not simply an administrative body but a body for ideological education. The Ministry of Higher Education must give guidance to the teaching staff of institutes of higher learning so that they can train students to be cadres who are faithful to the Party. In this sense, the ministry can be called an organ which educates the educators. Accordingly, the officials of this ministry must have a stronger Party spirit and a higher level of ideological awareness than anybody else. However, the defects revealed at this meeting show that, ideologically speaking, you who are working in this ministry are no better than those in the ministries in charge of production. You still 162 === [PDF page 171] === retain many survivals of bourgeois ideology and are conspicuously lacking in Party, class and popular spirit. Those with petty-bourgeois ideas worked zealously during the democratic revolution in alliance with the working class, but in the socialist revolution they are not active enough. Our revolution keeps forging ahead. Today our Party is waging a serious ideological struggle to eradicate bourgeois ideology once and for all. Those who cling to their petty-bourgeois ideas must be criticized at this meeting. And if they are not to be sluggards in the revolution, they must bid farewell to their petty-bourgeois ideology after this criticism. The most effective way of correcting ideological defects is to go among the masses; the furnace of ideological training is the strong criticism of the Party members and the masses. The cadres’ Party and class spirit and their allegiance to the people must be constantly tested and tempered first at Party cell meetings and primary Party committee meetings, and then among the working class and other working masses. No matter how obstinate you might be, you will be helpless in the furnace. There are only two alternatives for you: either to become steel or pig iron. Once in the furnace of mass criticism, one who is infected with outworn ideas cannot survive. In order to teach those with petty-bourgeois ideology a good lesson, Party life must be intensified and an atmosphere of criticism established within the Party. You must not think that the strong criticisms made at this meeting will solve all the problems. You have to keep on criticizing those who have ideological defects, so as to correct them. On the other hand, those comrades who have been criticized must be bold enough to rectify their faults. They must not become disheartened or try to revenge themselves on their critics, but must rather regard them as their benefactors and be more benevolent to them. Only then will their subordinates be bold enough to criticize the cadres, and the cadres be able to work effectively under the supervision of the masses. 163 === [PDF page 172] === Anyone who hates the supervision of the Party organization and the masses will inevitably make big mistakes. The more infected with petty-bourgeois ideas he is, the more he hates the supervision of the Party and the masses. Stricter control must, therefore, be exercised over such people. Once a man is free from the Party’s control, he may become complacent. If this complacency makes him despise the masses, act as he pleases and slight the Party organization, then it cannot be regarded as simple complacency. It is the first step towards anti-Party activity. During the debate you have raised the question of whether anti-Party activity is intentional or not. All anti-Party actions are intentional. You cannot regard as deliberate only those anti-Party actions perpetrated under a sectarian programme. If you judge the Party’s policies, and execute those which are to your liking and do not carry out those which are not, then this is already a deliberate act against the Party. If you go a bit farther, you will openly criticize the Party’s policies, and in an attempt to oppose the Party and defend yourselves, will start gathering people around you. This will lead to an organized sect. Therefore, the Party organization must always intensify Party life so that nobody will be complacent and display “individual heroism”. This is necessary not only for cadres but also for all the rest of the Party membership. Everyone has some survivals of outworn ideas, even the workers and peasants. In particular, intellectuals who are divorced from productive activity are greatly infected with these ideas. Petty-bourgeois ideas are retained to a considerable extent by groups of intellectuals such as those at the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of General Education, the Academy of Sciences, universities and colleges. This meeting has made me realize more keenly than ever before that our groups of intellectuals must be revolutionized. At present our educational work shows a variety of defects. There may be a number of reasons for this, but the main one is the lack of ideological training on the part of the workers in this sector. If all the 164 === [PDF page 173] === officials of the education ministries and all the teachers had received sufficient Party and communist education and had been equipped with high Party, class and popular spirit, our educational work would certainly have progressed well. You must not think that a few volumes of Marxist-Leninist literature will give you a complete communist education. It is natural that the intellectuals should read widely. The question is not how many volumes of Marxist-Leninist literature you have read but how you put the theories into practice. However many Marxist-Leninist propositions you may know, if you cannot assimilate the ideology as your own, and do not know how to translate it into practice, you are not a communist. These people are captives of bourgeois ideology. You might consider yourselves free from bourgeois ideas. However, the facts show that those who are in charge of higher education still retain many traces of outworn ideas. Let me cite a few examples. University teachers lecture a thousand hours a year, and you are claiming that this is too much. But you are wrong. Fundamentally speaking, estimating lecture hours is not the attitude of a revolutionary. If you were true revolutionaries who serve the people, you would never do this: you would endeavour by all possible means to do as much work as you could. The communist struggles for the revolution with all his energies and takes the greatest pleasure and pride in this. Therefore, though the revolution is severe, revolutionaries are always cheery and optimistic and full of ardour. Falling in action under the red banner of communism is the highest honour for a revolutionary. If the man in front falls, the next man takes up the banner and keeps on fighting. In this way the revolution wins the final victory. In the light of these revolutionary qualities, our intellectuals’ level of ideological preparedness is still too low. If they lecture a thousand hours a year it means that they work three hours a day on average. Things would be different if we had already established communism, 165 === [PDF page 174] === but in a socialist society you are not entitled to eat if you do not even work three hours a day. It is true that teachers need time to prepare new lecture plans. However, if they work three hours a day and make productive use of the rest of their time, they can prepare good lectures and study as much as they want. To say that they have no time to study is untenable. It is also wrong to complain about having too many meetings. Sometimes meetings might be rather frequent. But those who lead political lives have to hold meetings. Your complaint about too many meetings and about the lack of time is merely an excuse. The workers do strenuous work sweating at the furnaces seven to eight hours every day but they attend meetings and study hard after work without complaining. A few days ago I visited the Unnyul Mine. I dropped in at a worker’s house and had a talk with his wife. According to her, her husband is a machine operator and he goes to work at about seven o’clock in the morning and returns at five or six in the evening; soon after supper he goes to school, books in hand, to study and comes home at eleven. He may not have enough time to sleep. However, this comrade was said to have no complaints about his strenuous life. University teachers have much more time to spare than these workers. It is wrong to think that intellectuals have no work to do at present. In order to speed up the technical and cultural revolutions, they must work harder. It is true that, in the past, the institutes of higher learning under the Ministry of Higher Education have trained a considerable number of technicians and experts each year; but many of these graduates have been appointed as university teachers, so that the different branches of the national economy have been provided with only a few of them. At present, our factories and farming villages have only a small number of intellectuals. Cooperative farms are having difficulty in getting competent accountants, with the result that large amounts of state and communal property are being wasted. 166 === [PDF page 175] === If the university lecturers were to consider the nation’s situation, they would naturally resolve to do ten men’s work with seven or eight, or even five persons. And if the surplus teachers are sent to the factories or villages, they will find plenty of work there. However, at present, our university teachers do not even consider working harder to help the workers and peasants. Instead, they complain that the state assigns them too much work and they grumble when asked to work at production sites or secondary schools because they consider this beneath them. Their unwillingness to help the workers and peasants means that they have not yet been working-classized and revolutionized. This is because the Ministry of Higher Education did not train the university teachers properly. Now let us examine the teachers’ attitude to remuneration. The present system is such that though they are paid by the state every month, university teachers receive additional payment for lectures delivered outside the set hours and also fees for the manuscripts they write. According to recent reports our teachers are not willing to work unless they are paid. What is more, none of them wants to write textbooks for correspondence courses because the manuscript fees are rather low. This is how matters stand now. I was told that comrades at the Academy of Sciences are reluctant to give lectures at universities because of the question of remuneration. As long as you make an issue of payment, you cannot be revolutionaries. In the old days revolutionaries received no pay but fought heroically, giving even their lives. If you regard it as a great burden to give a few hours of lectures or to write several articles and books without extra pay, you are wrong. Marx did not receive any remuneration for Das Kapital. He wrote much but he was persecuted by capitalists instead of receiving his manuscript fees, and he led a very hard life. However, he used all his energies in writing in the interests of the revolution. It is indeed an honour to deliver lectures at universities. And it is a splendid and worthy task to write a good article or a good book for the 167 === [PDF page 176] === masses. There are many people who envy professors, wishing that they could give a lecture at a university or could write good books. But, however eagerly they wish it, they cannot do so, because they are not qualified. But our intellectuals can give lectures and write books and yet they insist on receiving money for doing this wonderful work. Our teachers must not be hired hands who work to earn a small amount of money for lectures and manuscripts; they must be revolutionaries who work hard to train communists. Lectures delivered for the purpose of earning money cannot be filled with communist spirit. Of course, it is necessary to guarantee the livelihood of intellectuals. But once their livelihood is guaranteed, they ought to dispense with their desire to make money. Ours is not a communist society; so specific state institutions are necessary and there has to be some difference in wages. Because we still have few goods, we cannot give everybody equal shares. However, in our country the difference in wages is not very great and we are gradually narrowing the gap. On the completion of the Seven-Year Plan we intend to raise wages. Our plan is to give everybody a higher living standard by raising the wages of the low salary-earners sharply and the high salary-earners by a small amount. University teachers are much better off than primary school teachers, so they should not say that they cannot work because their livelihood is not guaranteed. In the last analysis, their ideology is what matters. University teachers are widely-read and have studied extensively, but they are so money-conscious because they have failed to root out of their minds the survivals of bourgeois ideas. Examination of the personal histories of our educators shows that most of them are new intellectuals brought up by our Party after liberation. All of them have grown up in the new society and studied at our universities. Therefore, they have not been influenced by the ideology of the old society. 168 === [PDF page 177] === Where, then, did these bourgeois ideas, which survive in the minds of our intellectuals, come from? We overthrew the old exploitative system and established a socialist system. In our country there are neither landlords nor capitalists. However, traces of the old ideas still exist in our society to a great extent and they will remain for a long time to come. Your teachers were greatly affected by petty-bourgeois concepts and you are surrounded by people who have outmoded beliefs. Old ideas are also continually coming in from outside. The US imperialists and landlords and capitalists are riding high in the south of our country, and these old ideas are constantly coming in from south Korea. The influence of the Western way of life may also come in from abroad, as may various opportunist and revisionist ideas which are alien to Marxism-Leninism. If we do not sharpen our vigilance the remnants of old ideas may be revived and those which have infiltrated from outside may confuse our minds. Because of this, even the younger intellectuals who grew up in our society might be ideologically affected, if they are not given constant, proper training. We must continue the powerful struggle against the old ideas remaining in our society and against bourgeois ideas infiltrating from outside so that our intellectuals can faithfully serve the revolution. And we ought especially to arm ourselves against bourgeois egoism. Our country has a very short history of capitalism. We came over to socialism without passing through the higher stage of capitalism, and so our people have a relatively small degree of capitalist egoism. It is said that in European countries where capitalism is deeply rooted brothers will even pay the bills separately at a restaurant, and financial accounting is very strict even between father and son. We find this hard to understand but they consider it quite natural. So, it is not surprising that they always want to be paid for their lectures and for their manuscripts. In this country we do not need to follow, automatically, the system 169 === [PDF page 178] === introduced in developed capitalist countries. If we were to do so it would be tantamount to instilling egoism into the minds of our people. Our ultimate goal is to build communism. To do so, we must root out egoistic ideas. So what is the use of encouraging egoism among our people only to have the trouble of eliminating it? This is unnecessary. At the time of the cooperativization of agriculture, taking into consideration the fact that our peasants were at different levels of political awareness, we defined various forms of cooperatives. First we advised the peasants to form labour-aid teams. They ridiculed this, saying that the labour-aid team had been in existence since ancient times and that it was not socialistic. So, from the very outset, most of the peasants chose the third form, the highest form. Some people said that the cooperative movement progressed too quickly in our country. However, our Party actively supported the aspirations of the peasants who demanded the highest form from the start. If we had mechanically copied foreign experience, we would not have been able to complete such a difficult revolutionary task as agricultural cooperativization in so short a time and so smoothly. With regard to transforming people’s ideology, we have many advantages over the countries where capitalism developed. A foreign delegate once visited Chongsan-ri and said that he greatly admired our peasants’ high communist morals. But later I could see nothing unusual about this. He said that when he visited Chongsan-ri he found the highway running right in front of the village, but the farmers had gone out to work leaving their houses unlocked. According to him, in his country people must carefully lock their houses when they go out for even a short time. He praised the Koreans’ high communist moral traits of mutual trust and love. In olden times, too, our people would sleep at night with the doors unlocked and lived without fences round their houses. Only landlords had earthen walls built round their houses. If anyone committed a theft or some other crime, he was not allowed to stay in his village; he was thrown out. 170 === [PDF page 179] === While continuously developing these excellent morals peculiar to our people, our Party is educating the working people in communist ideology. However, the Ministry of Higher Education, instead of positively fostering our people’s fine morals, has unthinkingly copied the system which foreign countries themselves will have to abolish, thus encouraging selfishness among our intellectuals. It is not yet too late. The Ministry of Higher Education must discard this imperfect system based on foreign models and carry out a forceful ideological struggle against the egoism of the teachers, so that they will work, not for money, but for the revolution. In order to temper their Party, class and popular spirit, intellectuals must actively participate in the ideological struggle. Anybody can be a revolutionary intellectual if he fights well. Some people consider that because they are intellectuals they waver and cannot be revolutionaries. They are wrong. Intellectuals do not always lack a revolutionary spirit. There are many revolutionaries who were formerly intellectuals. Historically speaking, it is true that intellectuals are apt to waver. In capitalist society intellectuals always hesitate in deciding whether they should serve the capitalists or the working class. Therefore, communists have had to take into account their tendency to vacillation in the revolutionary struggle. However, in a socialist society where there are neither landlords nor capitalists, intellectuals do not hesitate as to whom they should serve. Our intellectuals all serve the working class and the working people. In a socialist society intellectuals must serve the people. There is no other way. Needless to say, those intellectuals of worker and peasant origin whom we trained after liberation do not hesitate. Even the intellectuals who were educated in the old society have got used to serving the people, in the course of their 20 years of struggle under our Party’s leadership. Whom they should serve is not a question for our intellectuals today; the question is how best to serve the working class and the 171 === [PDF page 180] === working people. How faithfully they will serve the people depends on the extent to which they still retain bourgeois ideas. In the last analysis, it depends on their ideological training. If all our intellectuals educate themselves well ideologically and make a deliberate effort, they will serve the people most faithfully; in other words, they will be the true intellectuals of the working class–revolutionary intellectuals. Not that the cadres of working-class origin have no survivals of outworn ideas. If they do not undergo ideological training, they too will degenerate. True, intellectuals need more ideological training. However, everybody should try to arm himself with the revolutionary ideas of the working class, irrespective of his family origin. If you think that the problem is that intellectuals know too much, you are gravely mistaken. Their extensive knowledge is not their weakness but their strength. Ignorant people cannot take the right course and may waver, but if you are well-informed about everything, it cannot weaken your fighting will. Even the workers can fight more bravely and with confidence only when they are well versed in the laws of the class struggle and the objectives of the revolution. At present we are carrying out the ideological and cultural revolutions among the working masses so as to raise their political awareness and cultural level. We would not be doing all this if acquiring knowledge undermined their revolutionary spirit. Intellectuals must glean the revolutionary spirit and fighting will of the workers, and the latter must glean knowledge from the former. In this way we shall wage a powerful struggle to working-classize the intellectuals and revolutionize them so as to firmly convince them of the triumph of the revolution, at the same time as we raise the workers’ cultural level to that of the intellectuals. Intellectuals must mix with the working class, with the conviction that they can be fine revolutionaries. And they should patiently temper their Party and class spirit among the working class. This will assuredly revolutionize our intellectuals and they will carry out their mission splendidly for the Party and the people. 172 === [PDF page 181] === 2. ON FIRMLY ESTABLISHING JUCHE IN EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Our country has had a long history of flunkeyism and dogmatism. As you all know, it is hemmed in by big powers. China and Russia are amongst the world’s largest countries and Japan is larger than our country. All of them have at various times tried to exert influence on us. Korea’s rotten feudal ruling classes despicably succumbed to the big powers and curried favour with them; they tried to prop up their rule by relying on foreign powers. Some wanted to worship the Qing dynasty and others tried to bring in the forces of Russia or Japan. Our ruling aristocrats behaved in such a sycophantic way that the country could only be brought to ruin. The thirty-six years of Japanese imperialist colonial rule increased the flunkeyism of our people. Under Japanese imperialist occupation many people lost their national spirit and idolized the Japanese; they spoke Japanese and changed their family names to Japanese ones, just as the Japanese asked them to do. After the defeat of Japanese imperialism the tendency of admiring other countries blindly began to emerge among the people. Some, in utter disregard of our peculiar domestic conditions, proposed that we should base everything on foreign patterns. They slighted our people’s history of struggle and revolutionary traditions, and even opposed our national culture and the fine manners and customs handed down by our ancestors. They even proposed to copy foreign ways of building houses and eating. Immediately after liberation I heard O Ki Sop speak at a meeting. He enunciated one foreign word after another such as “ideology”, “proletariat” and “hegemony” which the audience could not 173 === [PDF page 182] === understand. So I thought to myself that if everybody behaved like O Ki Sop there might be a danger of the Korean language being eradicated in the future. Of course, his speech contained nothing worth hearing. One who has learned a few foreign words by heart and shows off in front of the masses cannot have a clear idea about the Korean revolution. People of this kind are all flunkeys and dogmatists. In the grim days of the Fatherland Liberation War, we felt more keenly the harmful effects of flunkeyism and dogmatism. The dogmatists attempted to apply foreign military theory and tactics in our country without using their judgement. For example, where there are many large plains, direct-firing guns are effective. But in a mountainous country like ours we must use howitzers. However, the dogmatists saw to it that we deployed large numbers of direct-firing guns because this was the practice in foreign countries. This led to considerable losses. The aftereffects of dogmatism in ideological work were also conspicuous during the war. Before the war, some people talked only about the military achievements of foreign forces and said little about our own people’s revolutionary struggles. Thus our people could not benefit from the lofty revolutionary spirit of our anti-Japanese guerrillas and their rich experience in struggle. As a result, our people were neither determined nor fully prepared to fight on their own in difficult circumstances. As the People’s Army retreated and the enemy advanced, many people lost confidence in victory and were dispirited and even those willing to fight did not know how to and hid themselves here and there, so that they were captured and killed by the enemy in cold blood. It is quite possible for any army to make a strategic retreat for some time during war. General Ulji Mun Dok, too, retreated temporarily before crushing the huge army from Sui and Russia’s Kutuzov even handed Moscow over to the enemy before retreating, and then counterattacked and drove off Napoleon. Therefore, we had no grounds for losing our confidence in victory 174 === [PDF page 183] === merely because the People’s Army retreated for a time. If we had educated the people in our revolutionary traditions before the war they would have fought well without any hesitation behind enemy lines. They would have endured those 40 days easily if they had gone into the mountains, each carrying at least a mal of rice and an axe with him. We have learned a lesson from this bitter experience and have intensified our struggle to oppose flunkeyism and dogmatism and establish Juche. Upholding the Party’s policy of establishing Juche, our intellectuals worked hard and achieved many successes. First, let me cite the successes made in the sphere of social science. In the past, our people did not know their own history and only studied foreign history. One day during the war I examined the Party school’s teaching schedule, and I found that hundreds of hours had been allotted for lectures on world and foreign history, but only a few dozen hours for Korean history. So I told them that those who were going to make the Korean revolution must first learn their own people’s history and that there was no reason for them to learn foreign history in such detail. If they were specializing in history, it would be a different matter, but it would be useless for our Party workers to learn by heart the names of foreign emperors such as “Alexanders” and “Peters”. As the Juche idea was widely disseminated, our scholars began to study their own history and their people’s traditions of struggle, and to try to summarize our revolution and construction theoretically. Thus we recovered our lost history and revolutionary traditions, and fully realized the correctness of the Party’s policies. This greatly helped to foster national pride and socialist patriotism among our people and to arm them with our Party’s revolutionary doctrine. There has been a great change in natural science and technology. When I last visited the Unnyul Mine, I also had talks with comrades on the geological prospecting team; they told me their field of work had also been greatly affected by a servile and dogmatic attitude. The place where the Unnyul Mine is located now had long been 175 === [PDF page 184] === called Cholsan-ri (the Village of Iron Mount–Tr.) and our ancestors had mined iron ore there in the days of the Ri dynasty. In the light of this historical fact, our geological prospecting team should have sought iron ore there. However, until a few years ago, they had had no intention of doing so, because they had fully believed foreigners who told them there could be no iron ore in such a flat area. In fact, our comrades did not know how much knowledge and experience they had in geological prospecting, but they accepted as entirely correct what the foreigners said, just because they were from an advanced country. Later, as Juche was established among our prospectors, they found large quantities of iron in this lowland area. The deposits found there so far are estimated at as much as 100 million tons. It is said that continued prospecting will tap several hundred million tons more. Then the Unnyul Mine will be as large as the Musan Mine, the largest of its kind in our country. Because it is located downstream on the Taedong River near the Hwanghae Iron Works, the Unnyul Mine is blessed with the advantage of being able to ship the ore quickly by water at low cost. Tapping massive amounts of iron ore here is one of our great achievements. So I asked the personnel of the geological prospecting team why they had taken the trouble of going about rugged mountains when they had such excellent deposits near by. They answered that they had been foolish not to have used their own intelligence. Similar cases were found in other spheres. Our technicians once thought that our country had only small deposits of copper; this was based on Japanese data. The Japanese said that the Kapsan Mine had poor development prospects because of its scanty deposits. However, our technicians made a thoroughgoing geological survey of the mine and not long ago they found a huge vein of copper. At present the workers of the Kapsan Mine are in high spirits. They have resolved to produce 1,200 tons more copper this year than the quota assigned them under the national plan. 176 === [PDF page 185] === In another area our prospectors have found an immense new deposit of copper. From this we can see how foolish it was to believe blindly the Japanese data which claimed that we had little copper. Having established Juche and displayed a spirit of self-reliance, our geological prospecting personnel have also found nickel. Without nickel it is impossible to make special and stainless steels. We once put in an order for foreign stainless steel to run the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory. And it was difficult for us because we were asked to pay for it in gold. Our prospectors, aware of the country’s difficult situation, made strenuous efforts and finally found a local nickel deposit. The establishment of Juche among our personnel has made it possible to extract iron, copper and nickel. We can say that these precious ores are wonderful gifts given by the Juche idea. As this idea has been instilled into the minds of our workers and technicians, innovations have also been made in the engineering, metallurgical and chemical industries. Our workers and technicians boldly got down to solving technological problems by their own efforts and succeeded in turning out different kinds of complex modern machines and equipment. In a short space of time our people have built many machinery plants and by their own efforts have been able to produce large quantities of trucks, tractors and other machines and equipment needed for the nation’s technical revolution. In addition, our scientists and technicians have opened up excellent prospects for industrial development by using limestone and anthracite which are abundant in our country. Scientists and technicians in the chemical industry solved the problem of gasifying anthracite and in metallurgy the method of continuous steel-making from granulated iron has been developed. This is a major success that has opened up possibilities of developing the iron industry with anthracite of which we have a great deal. Our scientists have also opened up many new vistas in agronomy, biology and medical science and are achieving brilliant results. 177 === [PDF page 186] === Our literature and the arts have also conquered flunkeyism and dogmatism, with the result that a large number of excellent works have been created which suit our people’s tastes and attitudes. In the past our artists would not draw their beautiful native landscape but foreign mountains and rivers which are alien to our people. As I once had occasion to point out during the war, even in the rooms of a sanatorium of the People’s Army only foreign landscapes were hung on the walls. Our musicians did not sing our folk songs but foreign songs which were not to our people’s liking. And they discarded our national musical instruments, saying that they were primitive. If we had gone on like this, we would have completely lost the priceless heritage of the wonderful national culture accumulated by our ancestors through thousands of years. However, our Party established Juche in literature and the arts so that they have flowered and developed quickly on a national foundation and served to make our working people’s lives and work happy and vital. Through this struggle against flunkeyism and dogmatism and for the establishment of Juche, tremendous successes have been achieved in science and technology and in literature and the arts. You have made the valid criticism that the course of the struggle to build up Juche witnessed some deviations. We rather neglected the study of foreign languages and there were shortcomings in assimilating foreign experience. However, we need not regret in the least the establishment of Juche just because there were these trifling digressions. The successes gained as a result of the establishment of Juche dwarf these losses. Of course, these anomalies must be rectified. This is not difficult. However, had we continued to practise flunkeyism and dogmatism without establishing Juche, we would have suffered irreparable losses in our revolution and construction. What is still dangerous to us is the failure to establish Juche thoroughly, not deviations in the course of establishing it. We must, therefore, carry on the struggle to build up Juche. 178 === [PDF page 187] === Flunkeyism and dogmatism have, it is true, been largely eliminated from the minds of our people. But they have not yet been eradicated completely. The roots of flunkeyism put down during a long period of history will not be pulled up so quickly. Nor can we say that conditions which lead to the emergence of flunkeyism and dogmatism have been thoroughly stamped out in our country. As in the past, so at present our neighbours are all large countries with advanced science and technology. So if we are not careful a servile attitude towards these countries might grow up among us. We should maintain Juche in our relations with socialist countries, not to mention militaristic Japan. Needless to say, every communist must oppose big-power chauvinism and it must not be expressed in the relationship between socialist countries. However, it will take a long time for all the socialist countries to be completely free of the surviving outworn ideas. As experience shows there may yet be a number of people affected by big-power chauvinism in the socialist countries. Among the anti-Party sectarians who appeared in our country in the past, there were those who aligned themselves with the aggressive forces of imperialism but there were also some who had been manipulated by big-power chauvinists. The Tuesday group headed by Pak Hon Yong had been active agents of US imperialism supported by an American espionage agency. On the other hand, the M-L group headed by Choe Chang Ik and the Irkutsk group had challenged our Party in alliance with big-power chauvinists. These are not events of the remote past. Until imperialism disappears on a worldwide scale and the triumph of communism eliminates the difference of ownership, there must be a line of demarcation even between socialist countries and the struggle must be continued against big-power chauvinism and flunkeyism. The establishment of Juche aims in the last analysis at making a successful revolution in one’s own country with national pride and 179 === [PDF page 188] === confidence. Conducting an effective national revolution is the fundamental duty of every communist to world revolution. Korean communists can contribute to world revolution only when they have first made an effective Korean revolution. The establishment of Juche does not mean nationalism; it does not run counter to proletarian internationalism. Genuine internationalism presupposes patriotism. He who does not love his country and is not interested in his own country’s revolution cannot be faithful to world revolution. Big-power chauvinism is the national egoism of great powers and flunkeyism is the expression of national nihilism on the part of small nations. This is entirely alien to both proletarian internationalism and socialist patriotism. Therefore, true patriots and internationalists must resolutely oppose big-power chauvinism and flunkeyism and firmly maintain their Juche position. If one is to establish Juche, one must first know one’s own country well. We must carry out the revolution in Korea and build a communist paradise on Korean soil. Even after the worldwide victory of communism, we will be living on Korean soil where our people have lived through generations. Why should we live in a strange country, leaving this land of beautiful scenery? If we are to make the revolution in Korea and live in Korea, we must know the history and culture of the Korean people, know the land and seas of Korea and know its climate and natural resources. Only when we are familiar with our country can we do everything to suit our specific conditions and love our country and people and have pride and confidence in carrying out revolution in our land. Our teachers, however, do not yet have adequate knowledge of their country and are little interested in its revolution. So they will not be able to educate our rising generation to be true patriots and revolutionaries. In waging the struggle to establish Juche in their work, our educationalists must first strive to become familiar with their country and revolution. 180 === [PDF page 189] === The most essential factor in eliminating flunkeyism and dogmatism and establishing Juche is developing one’s country in all its political, economic and cultural aspects. When it has a better government, more advanced science and technology and higher living standards, then flunkeyism will disappear automatically. Therefore, while making conscious efforts to establish Juche, our intellectuals must introduce changes in the branches of science and technology in which they specialize. In order to advance the technical and cultural revolutions and step up our socialist construction, we need many scientists and technicians. We must increase our geological prospecting personnel and must assign many more capable technicians to the engineering, electrical and chemical industries, agriculture and all other spheres of the national economy. Our educationalists must radically improve the quality of their education so as to train sufficient competent scientists and technicians. Those who are engaged in social science must patiently carry on their studies on our country’s history and our Party’s revolutionary traditions. In addition, they must make a thorough study of major theoretical and practical problems solved by the Party through the creative application of Marxism-Leninism to the national situation and must give a complete theoretical explanation of the law-governed process of our revolution and construction. In the field of natural science and technology, we should conduct more vigorous research in order to develop industry using domestic raw materials by exploiting our own resources. Only if we make a special effort can we enrich ourselves by using our own natural resources. We need not just envy the resources of other nations. To guarantee economic independence, we must build an industry largely based on our own raw materials. We must provide at least 70 per cent of the raw materials for industry locally and import only some which are not produced here. For this purpose, our scientists and technicians must make a more detailed study of the sources of domestic raw materials and must look 181 === [PDF page 190] === for those which we lack and try to manufacture as many substitutes as possible for those which we do not have. We are opposed to flunkeyism and dogmatism, but this does not mean that we should isolate our country as Regent Taewongun did. If we boast that our own things are best and do not learn from others with an open mind we cannot develop. If we are to develop our science and technology quickly, we must draw positively on foreign achievements in science and technology and oppose a closed-door attitude. We still have much to learn from other nations. We are lagging behind the advanced countries in machine engineering, electronics, semi-conductor technology and other branches. In atomic energy research there are many problems which we have not yet been able to solve. Our country has plenty of nuclear materials but is still unable to treat them industrially. Nor have we solved many of the scientific and technological problems which are supposed to be settled in the Seven-Year Plan period, such as the problem of producing ferromanganese or the question of producing aluminium from nepheline. The chemical industry must direct its main efforts to producing synthetic fibres or resins by using our abundant supplies of carbide but it must also develop ways of manufacturing chemical products with imported crude oil. Of course, our scientists and technicians all have a complete understanding of the matter but if we were to build an oil refinery right now, tomorrow, say, to produce chemicals, there might be many difficult problems which would have to be solved technologically. In addition, there are still many areas in which our scientists and technologists must improve their competence. As regards the problems which we are unable to solve, we must not hesitate to adopt solutions from abroad if we can. Capitalism or revisionism will not come in with the foreign technology we introduce. We need not be afraid of learning from capitalist countries in addition to socialist countries. 182 === [PDF page 191] === Learning foreign science and technology will not breed flunkeyism in us. Only if we develop our own science and technology rapidly, even if this means learning from others, will we rid ourselves of flunkeyism. The question is: What attitude are we going to take towards the importation of foreign expertise? We learn from other countries not in order to admire them and shackle ourselves to them, but so that we can catch up with more advanced countries and increase our nation’s independence. We have already established Juche in science and laid solid foundations for an independent economy. What we need at present is that we should bring in advanced foreign technology so as to correct the shortcomings of our industry and promote the nation’s technological progress. This does not mean that we must absorb foreign techniques without reservation. It would be ridiculous to ignore our own excellent techniques and bring in those of others. We must always learn from others what we cannot solve by ourselves, and apply it to suit our country’s specific needs. If we do not assimilate foreign science and technology to suit our own conditions it will be of no use and will, in fact, exert a negative influence. For example, if we were to draw on foreign architectural techniques and build unsuitable houses which are not in accord with the Korean way of life, that would be worse than not learning any technology at all. The same applies to importing pianos and only playing Western music which our people do not understand. The piano is a modern musical instrument. We Koreans must also have pianos for the development of our music. However, we must not just play Western music on them but must play Korean music which suits our people’s tastes and character. Only then can this modern musical instrument serve to enrich our people’s lives. The same is true of other techniques. We must assimilate advanced foreign technology properly so that it will suit our people’s life and serve our revolution and construction. 183 === [PDF page 192] === 3. ON IMPROVING THE TRAINING OF CADRES To improve educational work it is important, first of all, to raise our teachers’ qualifications. Otherwise, we cannot improve the quality of teaching nor can we train the able technicians and experts we need. And if their competence remains low, we cannot raise the quality of our industrial products, either. At present, it is widely believed that our teachers’ level is low and that the technicians we have trained are not sufficiently qualified. We must have a clear understanding of this point. Our cadres’ qualifications are rather low for certain unavoidable reasons. Before liberation we had a very undeveloped industry and few technicians of our own. We rapidly developed a large-scale modern industry in a few years after the war. So we had to train large numbers of technicians and experts in a short space of time. If we had not quickly built up the ranks of our own cadres we would have been unable to rebuild the devastated industrial enterprises and lay the foundations of an independent national economy. Of course, it was important to raise our technicians’ qualifications. But it was still more urgent to train the requisite number of technicians and experts quickly and expand the ranks of our own cadres extensively. If our engineers had had another year to study at universities their qualifications would obviously have been higher. But the situation demanded that we send the students to work a year early and in larger numbers. That is why we set up so many universities and decided to shorten the period of training by a year, although we did not have enough competent teaching staff. As one factory after another was built those who had to run them could not be allowed just to read books at university. Thus, when the 184 === [PDF page 193] === furnace of the Hwanghae Iron Works went into operation, we even appointed students there six months ahead of their graduation. It is true that this could have lowered our university graduates’ qualifications to a certain extent. However, we must accept as a tremendous success the building up of such a huge army of our own cadres in a short space of time. All the enterprises throughout the nation are being run by home-trained technicians and experts. There is no factory which is run by foreigners. The furnaces are operated by the graduates of Kim Chaek University of Technology and the fertilizer factories by the graduates of the Hamhung University of Chemical Industry. Moreover, all our state and economic agencies are administered by local cadres. Our planning work is not yet free from certain defects, but this is also true of other nations. Our planning is done better by our own cadres than by foreign advisors who do not understand our particular conditions. It is said that our technicians’ qualifications are low but, in fact, this is not strictly true. Our technicians built the vinalon factory through their own efforts, rebuilt furnaces and set up large power stations and, recently, they have built a coal gasification factory. The factories we have built and the machines we have made are all working normally and they are highly efficient in production. Our engineers have more than made up for having graduated from university a year early by gaining more experience at the production sites. They need have no regrets about their incomplete university education. They must continue to study. If our engineers apply their experience in production and construction and study patiently they will develop into excellent technicians. It was quite correct for us to train local cadres on our own. We could send our men abroad to train to be technicians. However, there are limits to this. We cannot have so many of our cadres trained in foreign countries. In addition, if we have too many people educated abroad, it will be difficult to establish Juche in economic construction. 185 === [PDF page 194] === Our cadres were trained by ourselves under difficult conditions; they are fully acquainted with the nation’s situation, have a high national pride and are faithful to the Party and the people. Furthermore, the preponderance of locally-trained cadres has allowed us to assimilate those who have studied abroad easily. We can take great pride in this huge army of excellent native cadres. We should, of course, raise our own technical cadres in large numbers in future, too. However, the number of technicians we have at present is by no means small. If the technicians who are already trained are allocated rationally and made to work in the right places, we will not experience a great shortage. Recently I visited the State Construction Commission. I found there were many civil engineers and economic experts on the construction organization and direction bureau but there was none who was versed in furnaces or machines and equipment. In order to improve its role in factory construction this bureau should have not only civil engineers but also a number of specialists in industrial technology. We must pay close attention to the rational allocation of technicians. Of course, we should continue to increase the number of our technicians and experts, but a major question at present is that of raising our intellectuals’ qualifications. At present our cadres’ scientific and technological levels fail to meet the demands of the fast-developing technical and cultural revolutions. Now that our general technical level is high, those who have ordinary technological knowledge can hardly be called technicians. If they are to lead the technical and cultural revolutions today, our technicians must drastically improve their qualifications. To do this our teachers, scientists and technicians must study hard. One of the greatest defects in our cadres is that they do not study, which is to say that they are idlers. Those who neglect study and do nothing because they have a bit of knowledge are worse than those who have had no schooling. We must fight resolutely against the 186 === [PDF page 195] === neglect of study so as to establish a serious habit of study among our teachers, scientists and technicians. Our Party is now demanding that a system of working eight hours, studying eight hours and resting eight hours be established even for the workers. Intellectuals should naturally study harder than the workers. The purpose of studying is not so that one can make money, but for the better pursuit of the revolution. If you apply yourself in this spirit, you can find time to study and increase the efficiency of your study. In order to establish an atmosphere of study among the teachers the leadership of the Ministry of Higher Education must first set an example. The minister or vice-ministers should deliver lectures at universities. As we have often stressed, not only the leadership of the ministry but also the workers of the Party Central Committee must give lectures at universities. This is also an excellent method of making the cadres study. They cannot make pointless speeches to the students. If they are to give lectures, they will be encouraged to research and analyse many problems. The scholars of the Academy of Sciences must also deliver lectures at universities. This will be extremely helpful in raising their qualifications. Demonstration lectures should be held regularly for teachers. If they are conducted properly, we can compel the teachers to study and improve the quality of their teaching. Those who are opposed to demonstration lectures seem to imagine that we do not need to supervise university teachers, but they are wrong. Supervision is necessary for everyone. Only when they are under control will they increase their sense of responsibility and only when they meet together in large numbers at such lectures, will they learn from each other and develop uniform views. We must also hold many academic seminars for teachers. This is a good way of creating the right atmosphere for study and deepening their knowledge. Next, the officials of the Ministry of Higher Education and university teachers must raise their political and ideological level. For 187 === [PDF page 196] === this, it is first necessary to intensify their study of Party policy. Only when we know Party policy can we find the correct solutions to all problems. Problems must be solved on the basis not of individual subjective opinion or judgement but of Party policy. If they are ignorant of it cadres cannot direct any work. Our universities are training technicians and experts who must give direct leadership in all spheres of socialist construction. Therefore, students must be familiar with Party policy and this is especially true of their teachers and the officials of the Ministry of Higher Education who control the universities. Educational workers must be well versed not only in the educational policy but also in all the internal and external policies of the Party. Then they can train cadres the way the Party requires and equip them with the Party’s ideology. At present, however, when they receive Party decisions, educationalists in most cases concentrate on only those which directly concern their own work and do not try to understand the Party’s general intentions. Those who are responsible for training the cadres required by the Party must not neglect the study of Party policy this way. From now on, Party departments must arrange gatherings of educational workers and notify them promptly of the problems of socialist construction and of international relations discussed by the Party. Some comrades may consider that if this sort of gathering is held frequently it will interfere with teaching. But, in fact, it will be a great help to teaching. If you do not know Party policy and just give lectures which are divorced from reality, without any orientation, they will be of no use. In the old days when we were engaged in revolutionary activity, we would often sit through the night and skip meals in order to discuss the policy of our struggle. The same should apply to educational work. Educational workers must attend Party policy briefing and study meetings, even if their sleeping hours are curtailed, so that all of them 188 === [PDF page 197] === can be thoroughly conversant with the Party’s policies. Next, we must strengthen the universities and raise the students’ qualifications. Our country has now more than 90 institutes of higher learning. Besides numerous regular universities in the capital and in the provinces, there are factory colleges at large factories and plants. In addition, provincial seats and large industrial enterprises have communist universities and their branches. The Party’s policy of opening so many universities and colleges for the speedy development of higher education has been fully justified. And yet, in the course of implementing this policy, certain shortcomings appeared. Because the universities enrolled a large number of students some of them were not qualified. Accordingly, some abandoned their schooling halfway and among the graduates there are quite a few who cannot perform their duties as the nation’s cadres. This is a great loss to the state. The rapid expansion of the universities hindered the buildup in the quality of the ranks of teachers and there were obstacles in providing the students with suitable study conditions. In addition to this, we have a difficult situation now which prevents us from enrolling as many students as we did before. Industrial enterprises are not willing to send good comrades who play a central role in production to regular universities, though they send them to the factory colleges. As a result, the regular universities have a poor reservoir of good students. In addition, providing so many students with scholarships is a heavy burden on the state. Nor can we fail to notice the strain on manpower in our endeavours to fulfil the Seven-Year Plan. Our situation demands that we enlist as many people as possible in production. We cannot keep increasing the enrolment of the regular university students as in the past. Therefore, the Party has recently taken measures for reducing the enrolment at regular universities, while expanding the system of studying while working. To enrol good people and educate them in a 189 === [PDF page 198] === responsible manner even by reducing admissions to a certain degree is better than exceeding our capacity and then turning out students at random. Furthermore, this is in accordance with the practical requirements of the development of our national economy. In order to improve education at universities they must be equipped with experimental apparatus and the necessary books. Only then can we raise the qualifications of the teachers and students. In spite of its great efforts the state has not obtained ample supplies of the necessary equipment for universities and scientific research institutions. It seems to me that the State Planning Commission knew the importance of providing experimental apparatus but did not import it because they did not have enough foreign currency. It is true that we are feeling a strain on foreign currency. However, if we are to develop our science and technology we must not begrudge this money. Even if it costs us foreign currency, we must be bold enough to import indispensable equipment for the Academy of Sciences and universities. In the first place Kim Il Sung University and Kim Chaek University of Technology should be provided with good apparatus. However, we must fight resolutely against the undesirable tendency of asking the state for things which can be made easily at our own scientific institutions or universities. The slogan of self-reliance must first be put into practice by the Ministry of Higher Education and the universities. Only then can the technicians and experts who have graduated from universities run industrial enterprises in a spirit of self-reliance. At present there are quite a few officials in some industrial enterprises who lack this spirit. A few days ago I visited the Pyongyang Knitted Wear Factory. We imported this factory to provide the working people with knitted wear, and paid a large amount of gold for it. However, this factory is a cripple, still unable to stand on its own feet. I asked the management cadres if they had any requests. They asked me to obtain foreign raw materials because they could not use 190 === [PDF page 199] === domestic rayon; they even asked me to get them foreign needles. Producing knitted goods with expensive imported raw materials does not pay. If the management of this factory had the spirit of self-reliance, they would think up ways to use domestic raw materials by whatever means possible. Moreover, they would not try to import needles which can be produced locally. They also asked me for a dye shop and a boiler room. As for dyeing, they can do that at the adjacent Pyongyang Textile Mill and they can make use of the boilers of neighbouring institutions or enterprises. But these people do not think of the country’s situation and just want the state to help them in everything. It seems to me that they regard the Premier as a person who carries a huge bag of goodies and hands them anything they want. So I seriously advised them not just to put up the slogan of self-reliance on the walls but to translate it into practice. The technicians trained at our universities do not try to solve difficult problems at factories independently but merely ask for anything they want to be imported. This is because their teachers failed to educate them in the spirit of self-reliance. Universities should endeavour to manufacture experimental apparatus and equipment themselves as far as possible and the teachers must set an example here. Since the necessary supplies are lacking, it will be no easy job to make decent equipment. But you should not consider this to be beyond you. You should boldly try to make what you can make for yourselves and import only what you cannot make. In addition, we should set up a system under which experimental apparatus and books are used jointly. The universities can use all the apparatus and books at the Academy of Sciences and factories. Because our country is not very large, this is quite possible. The Ministry of Higher Education should be the first to start making an inventory of books, machines and apparatus throughout the country. Because this job has not yet been done, none of us knows what sorts of apparatus and books are actually available. If we take such an inventory and make joint use of all our facilities, 191 === [PDF page 200] === we will find no great difficulty in education and research. Next, you have to endeavour to keep universities tidy. The state has admittedly not provided them with satisfactory conditions. But you must tidy up your schools under existing conditions. Most of our students have had experience of military service or labour and our teachers have undergone many trials. So once they are properly organized, they will keep their universities neat and tidy. Only when the students are accustomed to run their school economy industriously can they take good care of the nation’s economy after they have entered the world at large. University education is the last process of formal education. Therefore, university graduates must be all-round cadres who are not only armed politico-ideologically and equipped with scientific and technological knowledge but who know how to manage the economy. In factories you often find university graduates who do not know how to keep their factories tidy, nor their hostels nor even their own bodies. This, too, is because universities have not given them adequate education. Educational workers must always ensure that, making full use of all conditions provided by the state and using their imagination, they keep everything clean and tidy inside university premises and hostels and also outside. In order to improve higher education, the ministry’s guidance of universities must be intensified. In giving leadership to universities, bureaucracy and formalism must be eliminated once and for all. Ministry personnel must not merely find fault or deliver admonitions to universities. Just as the Party Central Committee has done recently at industrial enterprises, the guidance members must give substantial help to the work of universities, working under the leadership of university Party committees. They must mix with the teachers and students and discuss with them seriously how to improve university training, how to provide the students with better conditions for study and help them to overcome tricky problems. 192 === [PDF page 201] === From now on, the senior officials of the Ministry of Higher Education should take with them to universities numerous experts for guidance. When it is beyond the power of those within the ministry, it is necessary to enlist competent experts from the Academy of Sciences and other institutions. Only by doing this can they make an in-depth analysis of the work of universities. The minister or vice-ministers cannot know everything. If they are to give specific guidance to university work, they must have discussions with the teachers and students, attend Party cell meetings, listen to lectures and inspect laboratories. To do this, experts on social and natural sciences and those who have wide experience in education must join them in their efforts. In this way, the Ministry of Higher Education must intensify the political life at universities and firmly unite all the teaching staffs and students around the Party, and must improve education and strengthen the universities. This will make it possible to develop valuable people with strong Party and class spirit, rich knowledge and high cultural development. At the general membership meeting of the Party organization of the ministry many sound views have been put forward on the improvement of higher education. After this meeting you must quickly correct your faults and carry through the Party’s educational policy so as to bring about a new change in the work of higher education. 193 === [PDF page 202] === ON IMPROVING GUIDANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION TO SUIT NEW CIRCUMSTANCES Speech at a General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the State Construction Commission March 26, 1965 On the authority of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee I have today attended the general membership meeting of the Party organization of the State Construction Commission. At first I planned to participate for several days in Party cell meetings held prior to this meeting so as to hear at length the views of Party members and acquaint myself thoroughly with the work of the State Construction Commission. However, I only attended the Party cell meetings of the economic planning bureau and the construction organization and direction bureau for a day each but did not attend the other cell meetings because of the inspection tour to local factories and enterprises. Though I could not participate in many of your cell meetings, I studied the work of the construction sector from different angles while giving on-the-spot guidance to the Hwanghae Iron Works, the Unnyul Mine, the Kangson Steel Plant, and factories and enterprises in the Hamhung district during this period. I would like to put forward some opinions on the work of the State Construction Commission, basing my remarks on the report of its Party committee chairman made at this meeting, as well as the matters 194 === [PDF page 203] === discussed already at the cell meetings and the materials we obtained during our guidance of local factories and enterprises. 1. ON THE PRINCIPAL SHORTCOMINGS REVEALED IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR Capital construction holds a very important place in ensuring a high rate of socialist extended reproduction and constantly improving the material and cultural standards of the people. The production facilities of factories and enterprises, roads, bridges, harbours, cultural establishments, public service facilities and houses are all built through capital construction. Without this it is impossible to create conditions for production and the people’s material and cultural well-being. Because of the long colonial rule of the Japanese imperialists in the past, our industry made no progress and even what little industry there was, was almost destroyed by the US imperialists during the Fatherland Liberation War. As a result, our primary task after the war was that of rehabilitating the devastated factories, enterprises and establishments as soon as possible. At the same time, we had to build many factories and enterprises, as well as houses, schools, hospitals, clubhouses, theatres and other cultural establishments. Under such conditions capital construction became particularly important in the postwar period as a unit to which our first efforts had to be directed. We cannot say, however, that in the light of its importance, the work of this branch has progressed satisfactorily hitherto, as required by the Party. It goes without saying that as in other fields, many things have already been achieved in capital construction. In the very short postwar period we healed the war wounds, restored and built a large number of factories, enterprises and production facilities on the ruins, so laying a firm foundation for socialist industrialization. We also 195 === [PDF page 204] === constructed many houses and public establishments necessary for the people’s lives and built towns and villages in a more modern and attractive way. However, these successes were achieved entirely because our Party policy was correct and all the people came out as one in construction and worked hard upholding the policy and not because the construction agencies carried out their work efficiently. Today there are serious shortcomings in the work of our capital construction sector which require immediate correction. In short, capital construction is not undertaken in accordance with the present changed circumstances and conditions. Setting out to fulfil the Seven-Year Plan, the Party pointed out that the circumstances and conditions for construction had changed, and stressed the need to improve capital construction in conformity with the new situation. What, then, are these new circumstances and conditions? They are, first of all, that the shortage of labour in construction became more acute than before. In the early postwar period not only builders but all other people also–workers, peasants, youth and students, and armymen–became involved in construction and did a great deal of work at great speed. But the situation changed when we started on the fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan. Since a number of factories and enterprises had been reconstructed or newly built and put into operation, it became impossible to mobilize workers for construction work as before. The same was the case with students and armymen. According to their occupations, they all had to operate machines, study or remain at their guard-posts and, consequently, construction had to be done mainly by the efforts of construction workers themselves. The building materials situation also differed very much from what it had been previously. Only until the time of the Five-Year Plan were there immense reserves of materials which we could call upon and use. Large quantities of scrap-iron and brick were scattered everywhere. These were collected and used as supplements when there were insufficient building materials. At that time we received considerable material and technical aid from other countries. Now, however, there 196 === [PDF page 205] === is very much less in the way of unused materials available, compared with then. Moreover, aid from other countries is almost non-existent. As a result, we had to carry out all construction using our own techniques and building materials. The projects and character of construction have changed a great deal. In the period immediately after the war the main job was to reconstruct the factories, enterprises and production facilities which had been destroyed, but now it is to build new ones. It is not so difficult to restore these buildings and facilities, which we had run by ourselves, to their original state, but it is by no means an easy task to build new factories and facilities, the management of which we are neither experienced in nor familiar with. With our people’s standard of living improving day by day, the building of dwelling houses and cultural establishments, too, differs in character. Immediately after the armistice the people wanted to get out of caves even if it meant that they would be living in huts. Once they came out of the caves, however, they demanded flats, not huts and today, when they live in flats, they ask for better and more modern ones with larger, centrally-heated rooms and with better water supplies and plumbing. The demand of the people for cultural establishments is increasing daily. In the past they were satisfied with small clubhouses of a “barrack”-style, but now they ask for fine clubhouses and modern theatres and cinemas. Since the circumstances and conditions in construction have changed in this way, the building workers should have made prompt and full preparations so as to be able to undertake construction to suit the changed situation, in accordance with the policy of the Party. In particular, the officials of the State Construction Commission, the commanding staff of the construction sector, should have improved work systems and methods in conformity with these new circumstances and made full organizational and ideological, material and technical preparations to start a new, intensive battle to reach the high goal of the Seven-Year Plan. 197 === [PDF page 206] === If you are to win a victory in the struggle against the enemy or in the work to remake nature, you should never omit to make an early scientific analysis of the changing conditions and circumstances, form an accurate judgement on the situation, map out suitable strategies and tactics and make all necessary preparations. During the anti-Japanese armed struggle we always emerged victorious in battles against the enemy which was far superior in both numbers and technique, because we fought after making full preparations on the basis of the correct analysis and judgement of the objective situation, specific conditions for the battle and of the enemy’s movements. As construction is also an arduous struggle dealing with nature, success can be achieved only when you set about it after having a full understanding of the circumstances and the object and making good preparations accordingly. Until now, however, officials of the State Construction Commission, though warned in time by the Party of the changed circumstances and conditions in construction, did not investigate what was the weak link in their work, how they could strengthen it, and what they should correct and supplement in order to build in compliance with the changed situation; nor did they make proper organizational and ideological, material and technical preparations. What was the result of this? Although four years have already passed since the Seven-Year Plan started, you have not completed any one of the yearly plans for capital construction during this period properly. For good technical guidance over production construction, the Party put forward a policy of unitary, intensive and collective direction and saw to it that from 1963 the State Construction Commission gave consistent guidance to production construction which all ministries would undertake separately. In addition, the Party took a series of necessary steps so that this commission could do its work well, and helped it in various ways. Even after this, however, it showed no particular progress in its work but continued to fail in construction. We are faced with the magnificent target of the Seven-Year Plan, 198 === [PDF page 207] === but only three years of it remain. In order to reach this goal in this period we shall have to make the combat ranks of all fields of the national economy invincible. If even one of the ranks has no confidence in victory or begins to fail in the battle, we cannot reach the heights of the Seven-Year Plan. This being the case, the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee sharply criticized a number of shortcomings revealed in all spheres of production and construction and called upon all sectors of the national economy to redeploy their combat ranks and gather their strength to bring about a great new upsurge in socialist construction. Officials of the State Construction Commission should study the decision of the plenary meeting in depth and clearly realize its basic intention and, on this basis, closely examine their work. You should find out for yourselves the essential defects revealed so far in the work of this commission and strive to rid yourselves of defeatism. Until you have achieved this you will be unable to mechanize construction projects, increase the construction value per employee and, what is worse, achieve the construction goal of the Seven-Year Plan set forth by the Party. 2. ON STRENGTHENING THE RANKS OF STATE CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION OFFICIALS POLITICALLY AND IDEOLOGICALLY AND TRAINING THEM TECHNICALLY AND PRACTICALLY In order to turn the ranks of State Construction Commission workers into militant units, they should, first of all, work harder to stimulate Party spirit and establish the Party’s ideological system fully. 199 === [PDF page 208] === The idea of our Party is Marxism-Leninism which has been creatively applied to the specific circumstances of Korea–to build socialism in the northern half of Korea, accomplish the south Korean revolution and reunify the country and win the final victory of our revolution. All Party members must firmly arm themselves with the revolutionary ideas of our Party. In this way they should devote themselves to revolutionary work, deeply conscious that what they are doing is work for the good of the Party, the working class and the people and for the victory of the revolution. Party members are not, by any means, “salaried men” who work for their personal interests; they are revolutionaries fighting for the sake of the Party and the people. House building by Party members in this sector can never be for their personal interests, but it is revolutionary work which contributes to the socialist construction of the country and hastens national reunification. It does not matter to us Party members, therefore, what wages we receive; it does matter to us how faithfully we serve the Party and the revolution, the country and the people, and there is no greater happiness than to fulfil our honourable duty as members of the Workers’ Party of Korea, as revolutionaries. Loyalty to the Party and the revolution, in other words, the Party spirit, must find expression primarily in accepting and carrying out the Party policy unconditionally. Our Party cannot tolerate such things as refusing to receive Party policy unconditionally, doubting it, arguing over it or carping at it. It is possible to discuss different technical problems openly and this is necessary. However, there cannot be any argument over Party policy and instructions; they must be accepted and carried out unconditionally. The policy of the Party is adopted at its congress in accordance with the decision of all members. Therefore, even the Party Central Committee, to say nothing of individual Party members and Party organizations, has no right to amend or disobey it but is in duty bound to carry it out unreservedly. All the revolutionary tasks and policies put forward by the Party Central Committee in each period are always based on the line adopted 200 === [PDF page 209] === at the Party congress and are aimed at implementing it correctly. So nobody is allowed to doubt them; every Party member is obliged to carry them out. This is the foremost requirement in the Party discipline of democratic centralism. I have been told that in the past some officials of the State Construction Commission found fault with and argued about the decision adopted at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee, discussing whether it was right or wrong, feasible or not. That is very wrong. It clearly shows that these officials are not yet firmly equipped with the Party’s ideology and that their Party spirit is very weak. Those who doubt, argue about and criticize the Party policy are unfaithful to the Party and can never devote themselves to revolutionary work. This is a conclusion drawn from our experiences in the protracted revolutionary struggle. We have experienced many things while waging revolutionary war for nearly 40 years, both before and after liberation. In the pre-liberation years we had underground and armed struggles. After liberation we had the experience of building the Party, the people’s power and the army and we fought the war against the Americans. We also carried out economic construction as well as the struggle against factionalists and various complex ideological and theoretical campaigns in order to develop the international communist movement. In the course of these protracted, complicated and arduous revolutionary struggles we have learned that those who are unwilling to carry out the tasks assigned by the Party and the decisions made by the organization, questioning them, certainly have ideological imperfections and are doomed to follow the wrong path. I always say that you can put forward whatever views you wish when a certain matter is being discussed at a meeting, but once a decision has been reached by the organization everyone must carry it out explicitly. This is precisely the Leninist Party organizational principle. Unless Party members follow this principle they cannot succeed in revolutionary work. 201 === [PDF page 210] === The main reason for the poor performance of the State Construction Commission up to now is that its officials failed to establish this sort of Party spirit thoroughly. Instead of considering how to carry out the revolutionary task of the Party successfully and trying to accomplish it, the workers of this commission who are leadership staff of the construction sector wasted time in discussing it from every angle. So how could Party policies be accomplished in this sector and the capital construction plan be completed as it should be? It is obvious that a unit cannot win a battle when its commander’s ideological stand is unstable. If the officials of the State Construction Commission had all been firmly equipped with the revolutionary ideas of the Party they would have been quite able to overcome whatever difficulties there were and fulfil the capital construction plan set out by the state. From now on, they must work harder to equip themselves firmly with the revolutionary ideas of the Party and improve their Party spirit. In this way all of them will establish the Party’s ideological system thoroughly and acquire the characteristics of revolutionaries who are ready to carry out the Party policy faithfully without hesitation in any adversity. This is the most important task facing the officials of this commission. The key to the promotion of the Party spirit and the establishment of the Party’s ideological system is to strengthen Party life among officials. At the present meeting the chairman and vice-chairmen faced a great deal of criticism, and the main reason why they committed many errors in the past lies in the very fact that they did not participate willingly in Party life. The chairman or vice-chairmen are not privileged beings. Both cadres and rank-and-file members are equal Party members. There is no senior or junior member in Party life. If a cadre begins to absent himself from both Party meetings and Party study sessions and divorce himself from Party life, regarding himself as a special kind of person, he will inevitably go wrong. I think it is possible that senior officials of the State Construction 202 === [PDF page 211] === Commission often did not attend Party meetings or Party study sessions in the past partly because of the meetings arranged by their superiors and frequent summons. But the main reason is that they lacked a correct understanding of Party life and neglected it. As a member of the revolutionary ranks, the Party member’s life is worth living only when he takes an active part in Party life and devotes himself to the good of the Party, the people and the revolution; but what is the use of living when he spends his time eating instead of attending to his political life? Party members must attend Party meetings and Party studies without missing any, in the same way that they take meals. They ought not to keep away from Party meetings and studies even though it means missing a meal. The Party members who do not attend these meetings and sessions are disqualified from membership and they must resign from the Party as a matter of course. This is a requirement of our Party Rules. Officials of the State Construction Commission must devote their main attention to the strengthening of Party life, and its chairman and other leading officials in particular ought not to stand apart from it. The most important thing in strengthening Party life is to get all Party members not only to participate in Party meetings and studies without fail but also to intensify criticism at Party meetings. This will enable them to combat unremittingly all manner of negative practices such as failing to lead a sound Party life or failing to implement Party policies. It is very good that you increased criticism at this meeting. If you had always done this, the serious shortcomings which have now been criticized would not have shown themselves in the work of the commission. As regards the errors committed by the chairman and vice-chairmen, it is true that they are responsible for them, but other comrades are also to blame for having failed to criticize and correct their mistakes without delay. In future, when a person, whether he be chairman or vice-chairman, does not lead a Party life or acts contrary to Party policy, all the Party members ought to help him by offering incisive criticism at Party meetings, so that he will correct his mistakes before it is too late. 203 === [PDF page 212] === Next, the ranks of officials should be built up properly so as to direct capital construction effectively. The State Construction Commission has so far failed to do so. This is one of the main reasons why it could not provide proper guidance to capital construction. It should have supplied staff who could guide construction work satisfactorily under the new circumstances as demanded by the Party. However, it neglected to do this. On this occasion we have appraised the economic planning bureau and the construction organization and direction bureau where there are no indispensable staff. The economic planning bureau should play the role of the general staff at the State Construction Commission, but now it has only a few architectural and economic engineers or assistant engineers. There is no one who is well versed in the operation of blast furnaces or mines or smelteries. Nor is there anyone who knows anything about machines or electricity. In consequence, the bureau cannot play the role that it should. If a good combat plan is to be drawn up in the army, the operations bureau must have staff officers who are familiar with infantry, artillery, naval and air forces, and all other arms and services. In the same way, if the State Construction Commission is to compile an accurate plan for capital construction, its economic planning bureau must have specialists in various branches, that is, those who know about industrial construction, designing, building operations, different industrial sectors and machines and equipment. In other words, this bureau should naturally be conversant with the amount of steel, firebricks and labour needed for building a blast furnace. This is the way to work out a scientific construction plan. But now the bureau has no such people, so it accepts specifications submitted by design agencies without examination as well as accepting the plans haphazardly worked out and submitted by its subordinate enterprises, without making any study of them. There are many cases where ministries and enterprises, the masters of 204 === [PDF page 213] === construction, show in their specifications construction costs which have been calculated as low as possible, and include projects which are not immediate or pressing needs for the state, because they want to build even one more project. But the State Construction Commission officials who should rectify such wrong tendencies on the part of construction masters accept designs as they are, without investigating whether construction costs are correctly calculated or not, whether the projects are necessary or not and whether they are urgent or not. This is like people eating potatoes thinking they are sweet potatoes because they have been told that they are, or eating boiled barley believing it to be rice because it was given to them as such. The same is true of the construction organization and direction bureau. This bureau’s duty is giving technical guidance to industrial construction and other capital construction in all branches of the national economy. It must, as a matter of course, contain a group of specialists in metallurgy, machinery, chemistry and electricity, and staff who can direct all construction projects technically. However, it has only a few civil, architectural and economic engineers at present. It is obvious that such a small number of these engineers is not equal to the technical guidance of capital construction in all sectors of the national economy. It is said that an instructor of the construction organization and direction bureau had never seen what a blast furnace was like and that he only recently saw one for the first time at the construction site. How can such a man direct the construction of blast furnaces and know whether it is being done properly or not? And how can those who are familiar only with public works direct the building of an open-hearth furnace? Only when the construction of a blast furnace is managed by a person who knows all about it and the construction of an open-hearth furnace is controlled by someone who is knowledgeable about it can he judge how the work is being done and guide it properly. In the days of the Ministry of Construction which was not responsible for controlling industrial construction, its sole task was to 205 === [PDF page 214] === build houses and bridges and carry out public works. Therefore, it could keep up appearances somehow by using only architectural and civil engineers without having specialists in various spheres. But today when the State Construction Commission has even got to control industrial construction, the situation is radically different. At present it cannot play its role without specialists competent enough to give technical guidance to all branches of industrial construction. However, its senior officials have not paid proper attention to recruiting to its staff capable specialists in various fields. The Construction and Transport Department of the Party Central Committee is also responsible for the inadequate formation of the staff of the State Construction Commission. This department should have promptly reported the fact that the commission lacked essential departments and specialists and then taken the necessary measures. However, because it neglected to do this we have until now been unaware of the situation. As a result, the work of the State Construction Commission continued to mark time. It is not true that our country has insufficient technical personnel to fill these positions. It is true to say that we have not so many experienced technical personnel. However, there is a large number of newly-trained technicians and, if they are sensibly spread amongst the veterans, we shall be perfectly able to build up the ranks properly. Furthermore, it is not imperative that all those who work in the State Construction Commission should be university graduates. It is wrong to think that only graduates from the metal faculty of the technical university can be knowledgeable about open-hearth or blast furnaces. If good people are selected from among field workers and appointed to the post, they will be fully equal to the work at the economic planning bureau or the construction organization and direction bureau. In fact, they may be superior to university graduates in some respects. Frankly speaking, workers who have been engaged for a long time in production are far better than engineers or assistant engineers who have recently graduated from universities or higher technical schools. 206 === [PDF page 215] === It is probable that workers are inadequate when it comes to writing theses for a doctorate or a master of science, if asked to do so. But if they were told to find out the good points or the faults at the construction site of a blast furnace or an open-hearth furnace, they would be able to do so. On the contrary, university graduates may well understand what is written in textbooks but may not be able to manage production and construction on the spot. They are perhaps better than the workers in preparing plans in the office. However, they should draw up these plans only after clearly realizing the situation; if they make a practice of preparing them contrary to existing conditions while sitting at their desks, they are useless. You must not behave arrogantly, putting on airs because you are university graduates nor should you look down upon the workers. You ought to consider that you are inferior to shop-floor workers, although you are graduates and always learn from them, with an open mind. The best thing is to fill the ranks of State Construction Commission officials with university graduates who have experience in field work. They can certainly prepare a plan which accords with the situation and can give effective advice on production construction. But today there are few such people in our country. Under these conditions it will be most logical to organize the ranks with university graduates in combination with workers who have been working for a long time in the field. Since there are very many good workers with lengthy experience, it is not in the least bit difficult to pick out from amongst them the people who are needed by the commission. We intend to get all workers to graduate from university in future. Since many workers are now studying correspondence courses of universities and at factory colleges, the number of workers who will graduate will increase as the days go by. If you have the right attitude towards workers and boldly promote them, you will be able to build up the ranks of officials with good people, just as you require. 207 === [PDF page 216] === 3. ON REVISING THE STRUCTURE OF THE STATE CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION AND IMPROVING THE OFFICIALS’ METHODS AND STYLE OF WORK IN CONFORMITY WITH NEW CIRCUMSTANCES At present the State Construction Commission does not have some departments which are necessary and its structure is not designed to direct construction well. The structure of the construction organization and direction bureau in particular is such that it is impossible to understand whether each of the projects is proceeding smoothly or not and it is not possible to give them effective technical guidance. In short, it is a subjective and bureaucratic apparatus which was established without careful consideration. If this bureau is to be efficient in directing construction technically, it must have guidance departments arranged by branches so that it can guide construction by projects. It must have a metal industry construction guidance department responsible for guidance to the building of blast furnaces, coke ovens, open-hearth furnaces, rolling equipment and construction at mines, as well as departments in charge of guidance to building in the chemical industry, to the construction of power stations, and to the establishment of irrigation works, roads, railways and harbours. It will do well to set up a general construction guidance department to direct the building of small industrial construction projects, dwelling houses and public establishments carried out by provinces. It is advisable for the departments of the construction organization and direction bureau to have a structure of chief instructors, senior instructors, and instructors. Some comrades suggest that the construction organization and 208 === [PDF page 217] === direction bureau be reorganized into a management bureau, but this is unnecessary. The organization of a management bureau under the central authority only increases departments but it will be powerless. In its place you ought to ensure that the personnel of the bureau of direction for industrial construction under the provincial construction commission is reduced so as to reinforce the construction company. You must appoint an efficient person to the managership of the construction company and send competent cadres and technicians so that they will give effective guidance on the spot. This is better than setting up a management bureau under the central authority. There are many good reasons for establishing specialized branch sections in this way. This will enable the officials to study books related to their own branches so as to gain a great deal of professional knowledge and accumulate experience quickly. It will also enable them to analyse technical data required for the construction of relevant objects, further strengthen technical guidance to construction projects and improve their sense of responsibility in work to a marked extent. You should closely examine the structures not only of the construction organization and direction bureau but also other bureaus and change them, if necessary, in keeping with the present circumstances. While reorganizing the structure you must drastically improve the officials’ methods and style of work. Our Party’s consistent principle and method in economic guidance is that the superiors help their subordinates, that priority is given to political work to rouse the masses to action and that the tasks of economic construction are fulfilled, drawing on the strength and wisdom of the masses. This principle and method of our Party were applied well in the Taean work system. When economic guidance bodies and officials work as required by the Taean system, economic guidance work will go ahead smoothly. Officials of the State Construction Commission, however, still lack a clear understanding of the essence of the Taean system. It is said that some comrades take the instruction for introducing the Taean work 209 === [PDF page 218] === system for revising their management structures on the lines of the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant and argue about whether this system is applicable to the construction sector or not. This is a very rigid view of things. The Taean Electrical Machinery Plant is an engineering factory, so how is it possible for construction companies to work with the same management structures? The instruction for introducing the Taean system in no way means establishing the same management structure as that of the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant; it means directing the economy and managing enterprises according to the principle and method created and applied by our Party at the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant. Therefore, it is never an issue whether the Taean system is applicable to some spheres and enterprises but not to others. The Taean work system is the highest communistic system of economic guidance which all sectors and enterprises must introduce. In order to follow the Taean work system, senior officials should not simply wander around as though on a sightseeing trip as you do now, but must make an intense study of how to solve the difficult problems at lower units speedily, how to provide them with materials satisfactorily and how to give them correct technical guidance and they must visit subordinate units to give them substantial assistance in their work. Senior construction officials must go among the masses to discuss matters with them, instead of going to enterprises to meet only the managers or chief engineers before returning. They ought to attend meetings of members of the Party and of the League of Socialist Working Youth and occasionally the trade union members’ meetings or the general meetings of employees so as to hear the opinions of the broad masses. Then they will know all about the obstacles and errors at any unit. On this occasion we were able to find out the intrinsic defects revealed in the work of the State Construction Commission because we went among the masses and listened to their opinions. I have received no report from its chairman or vice-chairmen nor have I heard from other cadres. But I was soon able to understand what the problems were in its work after listening to the speeches of Party 210 === [PDF page 219] === members at the Party cell meetings of the economic planning bureau and the construction organization and direction bureau. If you visit lower units to talk with workers and attend Party meetings or employees’ meetings, you can recognize at least one or two difficult problems. At present, however, senior officials of this commission do not do this, but conduct guidance work by making the rounds of ten or more places a day by car. It might be appropriate to call this a “vehicle-use manner” rather than the so-called “sightseeing manner”. As they hastily rush about here and there in a “vehicle-use manner”, they have no time to attend Party meetings or talk to workers at enterprises. So they have no alternative but to go back after summoning the managers or chief engineers and scolding them a little. Such formalistic guidance leads only to wasting gasoline and irritating their subordinates, without giving them any help in their work. If they are going to visit subsidiary units to try to understand the situation in detail and give effective assistance, they ought not to go there alone but take specialists in various branches with them. The chairman or vice-chairman of the State Construction Commission cannot be familiar with all the technical problems of various fields as though he were an “encyclopedia”. That is why they cannot discover the complicated problems in work by themselves and, even if they did, cannot solve them accurately. If they are unable to solve difficult problems, it is pointless to visit these units. Whenever we visit localities and factories and enterprises, we always take with us people who are specialists in such fields. Of course, we go alone when we take an outing just to get to know the state of the people’s living or to examine anything. But we make a point of taking specialists with us when we go out to direct work and to help people in it. When guiding the Hwanghae Iron Works recently, we discovered many complex problems and correctly solved all of them. This was possible because we took with us officials who were experts in metallurgy and mining, as well as those who were familiar with construction and specialists in various other branches, and we had 211 === [PDF page 220] === discussions with them before taking appropriate measures by enlisting the wisdom of many people. When we visited the Hamhung district recently, we took the President of the Academy of Sciences, senior officials of the chemical industry and scientists with us and directed the factories there. Senior officials of the State Construction Commission, too, should never fail to take with them, when they visit lower units, ministry officials who are well acquainted with the work of the various branches. However, you went unaccompanied by instructors, although you know nothing in particular, and, worse still, went about in a “vehicle-use manner”. As a result, you could neither clearly understand the actual state of affairs in any one of the enterprises nor solve difficult problems properly. The past formalistic way of guidance to enterprises by officials of the State Construction Commission was clearly revealed once more in the course of our recent guidance over the Hwanghae Iron Works. Some time ago we visited this iron works where we reproved them for the very slow progress of its construction. At that time the Chairman of the State Construction Commission blamed it on the shortage of materials. The chairman of the North Hwanghae Provincial Construction Commission, too, attributed the delay in construction to the same cause. According to my observations, however, the shortage of materials was no more than an excuse. Last year the State Construction Commission received 90,000 tons of steel from the state for construction purposes. In our present situation 90,000 tons of steel is no small amount. Moreover, as last year’s scale of capital construction was not so large, that much steel was quite enough to fulfil the capital construction plan. As we could not understand why construction was being held up for lack of materials, we inquired into the matter. Sure enough, we found that far from there being a shortage of steel, 1,700 tons of steel which was not used at the Hwanghae Iron Works had been piled up for no less than a year on its construction site. Perhaps this is also true of other places. On the one hand a large amount of steel is piled up in this way while, on the other, 212 === [PDF page 221] === construction is being held up because of the lack of steel. How serious a crime this is against the country. This is not caused by the Cabinet or the State Planning Commission. This is entirely due to the inefficient work of the State Construction Commission. If its officials had gone to the Hwanghae Iron Works to study the state of affairs and arranged to transfer the unused steel there to other factories and, in its place, arranged to bring the necessary steel from other places, there would have been no case in which construction was held up for lack of steel, but the speed of construction would have been greatly accelerated. Because construction sites are not provided with the necessary steel because of the bungling of the State Construction Commission, many bad practices are adopted, such as that shaped steel is used when it should not be and thick round steel is inevitably used when thin round steel is needed. This not only slowed down the speed of construction so much but also prevented maintaining its quality and caused the waste of large quantities of steel. These grave shortcomings which have been revealed in the work of the State Construction Commission were entirely due to your bureaucratic and formalistic way of working–not relying on the Party’s mass line. Had you visited material supply agencies to talk to their officials and find out at the right time what the state of material supplies was, instead of travelling around in a “vehicle-use manner”, these things would not have happened. If you had at least asked a man in charge of a material storehouse, when you had an opportunity of visiting an enterprise, if he received sufficient materials, what kind of materials they were, and whether they were useful, you would have soon acquainted yourselves with how materials were supplied. However, you went around here and there hastily by car, not even giving a thought to conversations with storemen. Senior officials of this commission became so arrogant as to consider that the lowest grades they could talk to were managers and chief engineers, not the workers under them. This is a very wrong view to take of the working class and a dangerous practice. The working class is the most progressive class in our society and 213 === [PDF page 222] === the workers are, indeed, the most intelligent and talented people. It is the workers who build beautiful and grand houses and excellent factories, make up-to-date machines and equipment and operate them. No matter whether you have graduated from a technical university or a construction university and no matter what extraordinary talents you possess, you can do nothing for yourselves without relying on the workers. Of course the words of one or two workers may not be a great help to you. However, if you gather many of them together and hold discussions, a plasterer will advance a method to plaster better, a brick layer will offer a method of laying bricks faster and better and a man who deals with materials will give his opinions on their supply. If you rouse workers to action through effective political work you will be able to hear as many of their invaluable views as you want, and you will discover great reserves. I should like to speak a little about the experience we had some time ago at a factory where we inspired its workers to action to seek out immense reserves. We visited the factory with the aim of putting its whole work on the right lines and, at the same time, of solving the complicated problems in the production of electric motors and transformers and discovering reserves of materials including silicon steel sheets. For this purpose, we had a consultative meeting with its leading officials, workshop managers and Party cell chairmen. At this meeting the leading officials asked various questions, saying that the state should provide them in addition with this or that to fulfil this year’s plan. So we told the participants: “Because it seems that, as the state has so far greatly assisted you, you have fallen into the bad habit of expecting frequent supplies from your superiors like the child of a rich man, you had better correct it through an open criticism.” Then the workshop managers and Party cell chairmen all sprang to their feet to criticize the senior officials. According to their speeches, last year the subordinates had already advanced their opinion on introducing the fan-shaped cutting method to economize in silicon 214 === [PDF page 223] === steel sheets, but the factory’s senior officials had rejected it. Had they accepted the workers’ opinion at that time, they would have been able to save several hundred tons of silicon steel sheets last year. The fan-shaped cutting method was nothing special. It is a way of cutting silicon steel sheets so perfectly that it is possible to make savings after making fine measurements, just as women get more cloth for a suit of clothes for a child when they cut it on the basis of close measurements, than they do when they cut it just anyhow. This is a very easy method, which can be introduced immediately if only some improvements are made to tools and jigs and if some simple equipment is made. Since the chief engineer, however, ignored the opinions of his subordinates by flaunting bureaucracy, many silicon steel sheets were wasted and, in the long run, their shortage prevented the manufacture of more transformers and electric motors which could have been produced. The criticism made by his subordinates on the chief engineer was absolutely correct. As a result of introducing the fan-shaped cutting method initiated by the workers, the factory was able to save several hundred tons of silicon steel sheets. Moreover, on the initiative of workers, immense reserves were created for saving copper. At the consultative meeting the chief engineer said that they should build a new structure of 3,800 square metres in order to manufacture large transformers this year. So we advised him: “We shall be obliged to build it if we can only make large transformers when it is constructed, after making technical calculation; but we have to build chemical factories, power stations and many other projects this year; so you had better discuss a way of fulfilling the assignment without erecting the structure, if possible.” In spite of this the chief engineer continued to claim that it was essential to build it in order to accomplish the plan. It seemed to us that the question would not be solved easily. So we called the workers together to discuss the matter. As a result, they said that they could make as many of them as they wanted without erecting the building. They asserted that they did not need it if they would install equipment capable of placing a big crane in the existing 215 === [PDF page 224] === building. As a consequence, it became unnecessary to build the structure which he had said had to be built at all costs. Let me cite another example. At a plenary meeting of the Pyongyang City Party Committee held a short time ago a comrade made a very good speech. He said that now building workers spread the sand which was left over on the spot after building a house, and criticized it as very wrong. He said that they would save a good deal of manpower and funds if they carried the precious sand which had been brought there at great expenditure of gasoline to a new construction site, instead of throwing it away. I consider that this is a good proposal which should always be accepted. These few examples alone are enough to show how correct our Party’s mass line is and what great strength it can display. We can say that under such complicated and difficult conditions our Party has been so far able to push vigorously ahead with socialist construction without a failure because we have implemented the mass line. Our experience shows that when we rely on the inexhaustible strength and wisdom of the masses nothing is beyond our power but, on the contrary, when we look down upon them and do not rely on them, swaggering as if we alone know everything, we will be doomed to failure. This is true. One of the most important ways for setting the work of the State Construction Commission on the right track is that you yourselves and none other should acquire the Party’s mass line so as to improve the methods and style of work drastically. Senior officials cannot expect any success in their work unless they do away with their wrong ideological viewpoint of refusing to accept the opinions of their subordinates and looking down upon the producer masses, pretending to have the richest construction experience and to be the best students of the technology of construction. All the officials of the State Construction Commission, from its chairman to instructors, must acquire our Party’s mass line and revolutionary work methods and strive to implement them, so bringing about a dramatic improvement in the guidance of capital construction. 216 === [PDF page 225] === 4. ON IMPROVING CONSTRUCTION PLANNING A socialist economy is a planned economy and, accordingly, success in socialist economic construction depends mainly on planning. Just as in other sectors of the national economy, therefore, what is of primary importance in capital construction is to work out an accurate plan of capital construction. But at present there is no proper system in drawing up the plan for capital construction. As a result the construction plan is not being formulated correctly and capital construction is not being carried out as planned. In the past few years no construction projects in our country have been carried out in accordance with the anticipated sum of construction investments and put into operation at a set time. It is a fact that not all plans can be fulfilled as they are and there may be some divergence. The construction plan you prepared, however, hardly conforms to reality. This is partly due to the poor work of building workers but mainly to the improper drawing up of the construction plan. Because of the defects in the planning of capital construction, we fail to increase the rate of economic growth, which would otherwise have been possible. Now some comrades say that they cannot map out an accurate construction plan because projects often change, but this is only an excuse. Of course, as the situation changes, we may occasionally postpone planned construction for a while and undertake unexpected projects. But major construction projects seldom change and, when this does happen, only the amount of construction investments might increase or decrease a little. This being so, it is illogical that you cannot draw up the plan accurately because of changes in construction projects. The reason why the proper capital construction plan is not prepared 217 === [PDF page 226] === is that officials of the construction sector do not attempt to draw up a plan scientifically to suit the existing situation. Since the economic planning bureau of the State Construction Commission draws up construction plans haphazardly, instead of working it out on the basis of accurate calculations of manpower, materials, funds and other conditions for building operations, it bears no relation to reality. There are many cases where you planned to spend 12 million won and use 2,000 tons of steel and 500 workmen for the building of an ore-dressing plant, for instance, but you spent, in practice, 20 million won and used 2,500 tons of steel and 700 to 800 people. Since you draw up an incorrect plan for capital construction in this way, the state has to postpone another construction project or eliminate it from the building programme so as to construct the ore-dressing plant and, what is more, this becomes a big obstacle to the country’s general economic construction. Most of the construction plans formulated now by the State Construction Commission are so formalistic and inaccurate. It is obvious that as you make random plans without any detailed calculation of building conditions, construction cannot be carried out as planned. All the same, when officials of the construction commission are hard pressed about failures in construction, they make one excuse or another. At times they explain that they could not carry out their plan because the state plan envisaged a 20 percent increase in labour productivity, though only a 15 percent increase was possible. This is unjustified. The fact that the state needs to increase labour productivity by 20 per cent means that it cannot provide more manpower because of the strained labour situation of the country. Therefore, they must take steps to ensure high labour productivity by raising the technical and skill levels of workers, by widely introducing mechanization, and by increasing the rate of prefabrication in construction. In other words, they should endeavour to examine and discover ways of accomplishing the task of increasing labour productivity assigned by the state and carry them out. If they are not in a position to increase labour productivity by more than 15 per cent and 218 === [PDF page 227] === finish building works with the existing manpower, no matter how hard they try to find reserves, they should even go so far as to gather additional labour from other places. However, the State Construction Commission seems not to consider such matters. At present the State Planning Commission says that officials of the State Construction Commission demand a great deal of funds, labour and materials, without thinking of accelerating construction through mechanization and the economical use of labour and materials. This is by no means fortuitous. The capital construction plan should originally be worked out on the basis of the plan presented by the State Construction Commission. However, since you formulate it badly the State Planning Commission cannot have faith in your plan and so overcharges it. At present officials of the State Construction Commission demand a large sum of money and large amounts of materials and labour by submitting a plan which was drawn up without a close examination of the situation and without any discussion with the masses, whereas production ministries ask for small investments. Therefore, the State Planning Commission can only work out the plan for capital construction by adjusting these requests properly. The reason why the State Planning Commission cannot draw up the correct capital construction plan is, in the last analysis, that you do not prepare an accurate plan. In the period of postwar reconstruction when the production ministries undertook industrial construction for themselves, they made sure the work was done by regulating funds, materials and labour on their own even if the construction plan was not altogether clear-cut. Now that the State Construction Commission undertakes industrial construction in a consistent way, the capital construction plan cannot be accomplished unless it is prepared accurately. The State Construction Commission must take the lead in drawing up the capital construction plan. When a construction project is presented, the economic planning bureau of this commission should take the initiative in calculating the date by which the designs must be completed, the amounts of materials and labour needed for the project, 219 === [PDF page 228] === and how long the processes of construction and equipment will take and should also determine the cost of the investment accurately, as well as how long construction will take before submitting it to the State Planning Commission. Then the State Planning Commission should compare the plan of production ministries and that of the State Construction Commission and confirm their validity on the spot to regulate the capital construction plans. For the construction of an ore-dressing plant, for instance, if the State Construction Commission estimates the cost at 15 million won and the Ministry of Metal Industry estimates it at 10 million won, the State Planning Commission must visit the site to learn what the situation is and then calculate the investment sum accurately. The commission can sometimes choose the average of the two in a bureaucratic manner without making thorough enquiries and fix the amount of investment at 12 million won. In such cases you must seek reserves for saving construction funds through discussion with the builders and by reexamination of the capital construction plan. When there is a shortage of funds no matter how hard you try to find reserves, you must take the initiative in asking the State Planning Commission for more funds from the state or give up the building of some other minor project, so taking steps to ensure that this work goes ahead. The economic planning bureau of the State Construction Commission should not only draw up an accurate plan for new construction projects, but must also produce a comprehensible plan for works left over from the previous year, through close examination of each project. At present you do not seem to know how many works are postponed each year. The report of the Chairman of the State Construction Commission on the state of construction shows that he is not well informed about these works. This indicates that the commission is not controlling the works postponed from the previous year. In future you must get a detailed picture of the works by projects and calculate construction capacity, in order to work out the capital construction plans for the new year. The State Construction Commission should prepare the 220 === [PDF page 229] === construction plans for major projects itself. At present the most serious defect in the work of this commission is that it does not formulate the construction plans for major projects itself, confining its work to the mechanical amalgamation of the plans presented by provincial construction commissions. Of course, you have to combine the plans submitted by the lower units, but this is in all respects of secondary importance. The Party classifies cadres into those under the care of the Party Central Committee and those under the local Party organizations, and the Party Central Committee appoints all the managers of the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory, the Musan Mine and other major enterprises. In the same way, capital construction projects should also be classified into those under the control of the State Construction Commission and those which are the responsibility of provincial construction commissions. Major construction projects should be placed under the direct control of the central authority. In order to achieve this you must become completely familiar with the major projects first of all. Construction projects comprise those which involve both large and small-scale investments and not only the projects which represent large investment are major ones. From the state’s point of view projects may be important even though the amount of funds supplied is small. You must examine the construction projects one by one and then ensure that the State Construction Commission compiles the plan for major projects itself. It would not be a good thing if, instead of doing this, you ordered the provincial construction commissions to prepare plans also for major projects. Since these commissions have very few experienced officials and, moreover, have no clear view of the situation throughout the country, they cannot calculate the exact forces required. However, since the State Construction Commission is familiar with the overall construction situation and is able to calculate forces correctly, it can accurately forecast construction plans for major projects. Only when the economic planning bureau of the State Construction Commission draws up the combat plan of major construction projects 221 === [PDF page 230] === itself and takes charge of them, will it be able to command the battle creditably, investigating whether or not the provincial construction commissions and construction companies carry out their tasks properly and, if not, what the reason is for this. However, because the State Construction Commission in charge of capital construction work has, up till now, failed to regulate the combat plans of major projects, it has been unable to give proper guidance and, accordingly, the construction of major projects has not been promoted successfully. Let me cite an example. We expected to finish the construction of the blooming shop of the Hwanghae Iron Works by the first half of last year, but it was barely completed at the end of the year. You well know how important this project is to the national economy. At present the shortage of steel prevents our country from building more and from manufacturing more machinery and equipment, which would otherwise be possible. Although the construction sector suffered many problems for lack of steel, you did not take positive measures to finish the project in time. If the construction officials had accurately assessed the amount of materials and labour required for the construction of the blooming shop and, in order to provide them, had discussed the matter with the works’ Party committee and reported the fact to the State Planning Commission and then pressed ahead with construction, you would have been able to finish it on schedule. In that case the problem of steel, too, would have been satisfactorily solved by now. The construction of open-hearth furnace No. 6 of the Hwanghae Iron Works, too, is not going smoothly, but it would already have been completed if the State Construction Commission had exercised control and organized the work energetically. The Ministry of Metal Industry undertook scores of secondary projects which were not envisaged in the plan, and invested large amounts of materials and labour in them, which retarded the important construction of open-hearth furnace No. 6. Had the State Construction Commission strictly controlled it, this would not have occurred, and had the materials and labour expended on the unplanned projects been directed to the construction of this open-hearth 222 === [PDF page 231] === furnace, the project would not have been held up by the shortage of materials and manpower. At present you talk a great deal about the concentration of construction work, but because you do not organize operations, the Party’s policy of concentrated construction is not carried through as it should be. If you are going to implement this policy, you must prepare accurate plans for major construction projects and efficiently direct the fight to carry them out. Of the projects undertaken in a year in our country, only 30 to 40 are important. It will not, therefore, be so difficult for the State Construction Commission to work out the plans for major construction projects on its own. In order to produce accurate plans for these projects, the commission must always visit the production units and examine the prevailing situation in detail. Formulating a construction plan is the same as preparing a battle plan in the army. A war consists of large and small battles and an operational plan for a large battle is prepared by the Supreme Headquarters. In such circumstances the operations bureau goes out to the spot to familiarize itself with the actual conditions and calculate strength before attending to everything–the kinds and number of guns needed, the number of military engineers and their tasks as well as the place and time for them to go into action, and the number of infantrymen, their starting point and the direction in which they should advance. And it even produces a second plan as a reserve, which provides what should be done if the first plan fails. When drawing up the plan for major projects the State Construction Commission should in the same way go out to the work site and closely examine the amounts of materials, funds and labour required for each project and then make a detailed plan. It must have another plan to indicate the projects which must be completed at all costs even if others have to be abandoned when the original plan fails because of some unexpected development. Construction projects such as local industry factories and dwelling 223 === [PDF page 232] === houses should be planned by the provincial construction commissions themselves through close examination of the actual conditions, and the State Construction Commission should examine the plans which they submit and, if these are vague on any details, it should go and investigate and then help them to correct any defects there might be. It goes without saying that you ought to base construction plans on designs, when drawing them up, but you must not accept them blindly. Designs may be right or wrong and by examining them closely you might be able to discover more potentials. A design must not only be neatly drawn. Only when a design is worked out on an exact calculation of materials and labour and in conformity with the present situation in this country can we say that it is a well-drawn design. But we cannot accept that all designs will be like this. At present sharp differences sometimes arise between designs and building operations, which indicates that the designs are defective. No one is omnipotent and omniscient, and we cannot believe that designers have examined everything correctly. During the period of postwar reconstruction, some designers proposed that cables should be laid along Stalin Street and only multi-storeyed buildings be erected. Of course it is good to lay cables first, but at that time we had no cables and, if we had followed their advice Pyongyang would have begun to look like a city only ten years later. So we told the designers that we could build finer streets in other places when our country became well-off in the future, that we should lay electric cables first on back lanes because they were not immediately available and then build flats. And yet, some of them continued to insist on laying cables. At the time when the blast furnace of the Hwanghae Iron Works was rebuilt, a lot of materials and equipment which were not immediately needed were consumed because of the designers’ mistakes. These examples show that it is absolutely necessary to examine designs when formulating a construction plan. Therefore, planning officials must closely examine the designing on site and then produce a construction plan. 224 === [PDF page 233] === As for the plan of major construction projects, the chairman or vice-chairmen and other senior officials of the State Construction Commission should go straight to the site, taking with them specialists in various fields, and work out the plan on their own responsibility. They should go to the construction sites of important projects, accompanied by officials of the relevant branches such as the economic planning bureau, the construction organization and direction bureau, the specialized equipment bureau, the labour administration bureau, the general designing bureau, and material supply agencies, and investigate how much materials and labour they need and what kinds of equipment should be provided and until what date. They must also hold wide consultations with managers, chief engineers and those who are familiar with the state of affairs in the field, and with the officials of the ministry concerned. Only then can the construction plan be realistic. Following the current Party general membership meetings, the State Construction Commission should go to workplaces to check construction projects in keeping with this direction and re-examine this year’s plan for capital construction. It is very important to get to know what needs to be done in any work. When you fully understand the object in the revolutionary struggle or construction work, you will be able to organize work well in conformity with it and proceed without making mistakes. If we get to know people well in revolutionary work, we can educate them at the right time so that they can creditably carry out their revolutionary tasks without fault. Since the group of cadres has grown bigger, the situation has changed a little now, but in the past when this group was small, we took all the cadres in hand and knew everything about them–who liked drinking, who was a sound sleeper, who was a hasty person, and their levels. So, when we assigned a task to anyone we advised him to refrain from drinking or to beware of the enemy’s possible attack while asleep, giving consideration to his shortcomings. Then he would carry out the task with credit before his return. However, he would have been sure to commit an error when he had been sent out without being given any advice. 225 === [PDF page 234] === The same applies to construction work. If you are well aware of construction projects and assume control of them you can arrange work well to suit them and ensure success in construction. Quite apart from supervising new projects, the State Construction Commission must take control of the projects being built and check whether the planned manpower and material are appropriate, when their construction is to be completed and how far it has already progressed. Only then will you know clearly how many projects will have to be postponed until next year and be able to work out next year’s construction plan correctly also. In addition, you ought to re-examine the construction projects in the first half of next year. 5. ON GIVING EFFECTIVE TECHNICAL GUIDANCE TO MAJOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS At present the officials of the construction organization and direction bureau of the State Construction Commission, who are in charge of guiding construction technically, do not do so with a sense of responsibility, giving hardly any advice to the major construction projects in particular. Until now this bureau has given no technical guidance to the construction projects, but only played the role of a “taskmaster bureau” which drives people on. Now the work of technical guidance for major construction projects is left entirely to the provincial construction commissions, which are, however, incapable of doing this work. Because they have a small staff of technicians they cannot give proper guidance to huge projects such as the construction of iron works, steel plants and chemical factories. Moreover, they do not need to guide the large industrial construction projects in our conditions. As a province has only one or two large industrial construction projects of the same kind and the construction team has to move to another province after 226 === [PDF page 235] === finishing the building work, we cannot appoint technicians with relevant experience permanently to a provincial construction commission, in order to guide the projects. In spite of this, officials of the State Construction Commission put everything under the care of the provinces and travel around, scolding people for building poorly, instead of providing specific direction. Because they give no assistance to work in this way, the provincial construction commissions tend to regard the guidance of the State Construction Commission as a nuisance. In future the technical guidance in respect of important projects will be undertaken directly by the construction organization and direction bureau of the State Construction Commission and the provincial construction commissions will guide the local construction projects. This does not mean that this bureau ought to act like a management bureau, directing only a few projects and neglecting all the others. We mean that the bureau must direct all the construction projects, but should not lose sight of the main link in construction. The bureau must take direct control of important construction projects, so as to inquire into the fulfilment of each day’s programme and study how materials are supplied and, at the same time, it must expedite construction work in a responsible way. In order to allow this bureau to guide the important construction projects effectively, it is desirable to subordinate construction agencies in charge of such projects to both the State Construction Commission and the provincial construction commission. These agencies should come under the provincial construction commission administratively but obtain materials and receive guidance in building operations direct from the State Construction Commission. The bureau should also concentrate construction forces on the major projects and, when these are inadequate, take measures so that a mobile force, under the central authority, can be despatched to help them. The ministries concerned must give positive assistance in the construction of major projects. At present, they do not do this and you ought to criticize this tendency severely. 227 === [PDF page 236] === Meanwhile, Party organizations at all levels must also take a close interest in the construction of major projects. We criticized the Party committee chairman of the Hwanghae Iron Works some time ago for not giving tangible assistance in the construction of the open-hearth furnace and now Party organizations do not pay much attention to construction work. The provincial Party committees only pay lip service to giving assistance in construction but do nothing about it. All Party organizations, including the provincial Party committees, must assist with the construction of major projects. It is necessary to set up a material supply agency under the State Construction Commission for the successful construction of major projects. As materials are now becoming more of a problem in this sector, it is essential to establish a material supply agency under that commission–an agency which can be relied upon to provide the important construction projects with materials and which will deliver them direct to the relevant enterprises. Needless to say, the material supply agency of the State Construction Commission will not need to supply all materials for the construction of major projects, but only the important ones; bricks, for instance, should be supplied by the provincial material supply agency. You must ensure that the materials supplied to the important construction projects are used only for that purpose and are never diverted to secondary projects. And I consider it necessary to authorize the State Construction Commission to make use of the materials provided for other projects by provincial material supply agencies, when it is short of supplies of materials for major projects. In addition, it would be advisable for this commission itself to supervise the quality of construction. The Party is, at present, studying how to supervise the quality of construction in future. Anyhow, at present the commission should directly supervise this and, at the same time, exercise control so that no materials will be used for other purposes and no unplanned works will be undertaken. If the commission is to fulfil this function correctly, it must ensure that such practices cease in the building sector. 228 === [PDF page 237] === 6. ON ACCELERATING THE MECHANIZATION OF CONSTRUCTION WORK It is our exalted duty and historic mission as communists to free people from backbreaking labour by introducing mechanization. It is also one of the most important and urgent revolutionary tasks set out by our Party now. We not only won the independence of the country after driving out the Japanese imperialists but also established the government of the workers and peasants after crushing the landlords and capitalists and we have built in the northern half of Korea a new society which is free from exploitation and good to live in. Our task, however, does not end with this. What we must do from now on in the northern half of our country is to make the people more prosperous and, at the same time, make it possible for them to work easily and happily. For this purpose we should mechanize work by means of the technical revolution. That was the very reason why the Fourth Congress of our Party defined the present as the age of technical revolution, and the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy as a plan for overall technical reconstruction. In our country today the technical revolution is well under way and mechanization is being forcefully encouraged in all fields of the national economy, in accordance with Party policy. However, it cannot be said that in the building sector the Party policy on mechanization is being applied satisfactorily. According to what we have seen, this sector now seems to have the largest number of workers who still have to carry loads on their backs. Although you maintain that more than 50 per cent of construction work has been mechanized, this is not true. If more than 50 per cent of building work had been mechanized as you claim, the per-capita output of the 229 === [PDF page 238] === building workers would not be as low as it is now, nor would there be such a large number of workmen carrying loads on their backs. Some officials of the State Construction Commission are unmoved by workers having to toil in this way and, what is even worse, hold back mechanization in effect by sitting in their offices discussing whether they should introduce heavy machines or medium-sized ones. What does it matter whether they are heavy or medium? If it will make work easy for the workers we should at least introduce small machines, not heavy ones. Mechanization, be it large or small, complete or not, will be a good thing anyway. If mechanization is achieved, this will be good because the workers will work with ease; good because labour productivity will be increased and thus a great deal of work will be done using little labour, and also good because more work of other kinds will be done using the labour saved. We have to develop many mines, build many railways, carry on the cultivation of marine products and do a lot of other things. If labour is saved through mechanization in the building sector, we shall be able to do that much more. Therefore, we should effectively bring about the mechanization of all work, whether we introduce partial mechanization or whether it be on a medium or small scale. In the building industry they cannot manufacture new machines satisfactorily and yet, at the same time, they do not make effective use of the existing ones, but spoil them because they do not look after them. Moreover, they make light of small things though unable to carry out any of the big work, and even abandon what the workers have invented and have already introduced into production. Whether they work hard to effect mechanization or not is an ideological issue. Those who work for the working class and the people can only grieve at the sight of the workers toiling with loads on their backs and try hard to introduce mechanization. It is an expression of bourgeois ideology for anybody to consider it immaterial whether or not the workers undergo hardship, so long as one is left in peace. The Party policy for mechanization has not been implemented properly in the building industry precisely because bourgeois ideology 230 === [PDF page 239] === lingers on in the minds of senior officials in this sector. Unless this ideology is rooted out it is impossible to carry through the Party policy for mechanization. It is said that when instructed by the Party to mechanize, some people ask what they can use for mechanization as they have no machinery. This is not the attitude of revolutionaries. If they lack machines, they must make them themselves. If they apply their minds with revolutionary zeal to the problem of freeing the people from burdensome work at all costs, they can produce as many machines as they need. In the early postwar days we had no tower cranes or excavators. At that time our Party put forward a policy of mechanization, standardization and prefabrication in construction. Then the anti-Party factionalists criticized the Party’s policy and opposed it, claiming that we were trying to do what we were not able to accomplish. It is true that it was not easy to mechanize, standardize and prefabricate construction under the condition of our country at that time. However, we believed that even if we could not realize it immediately, we would be able to put it into effect before long if we aimed high and worked hard for its realization. What was the result? We built tower cranes and excavators through our own efforts, which enabled us to mechanize construction work and so carry out the policy of applying standardization and prefabrication in construction with credit. Today making tower cranes has become quite easy for us. Had we not set a lofty ideal and aim but had continued to do nothing at that time, saying that we could neither effect mechanization nor do anything because we lacked machinery, as some building officials do now, we would have no tower cranes and excavators today and, accordingly, could not consider large-scale modern construction as it is today. The trouble does not lie in the lack of machines but of revolutionary ideas to relieve the people of arduous labour as soon as possible and make them more prosperous. I do not need to say that the manufacture of new machines and the mechanization of all operations is not an easy task which can be completed in a day or two. This is no less difficult than driving out the imperialist aggressors or overthrowing the landlord and capitalist 231 === [PDF page 240] === system; it is a revolutionary task that takes a long time to accomplish. However, our experience shows that, if the Party members and working people try hard, mechanization can and must be effected in all fields. Like all work, the task of mechanizing labour cannot be effected by using only the strength and talents of a few people; it can be successfully accomplished only when the wisdom of the masses is brought into full play and the producer masses in particular are mobilized by great efforts. If effective political work is conducted among the workers to make them understand the Party’s policy on mechanization clearly, they will all turn out to carry it into effect. This is proved by the example of an ordinary worker of the Nampho Glass Factory who has mechanized glass blowing operations. In 1963 we visited this factory. While touring the works we stopped at a workplace where glassware was being made and saw a worker blowing glass with great difficulty. After watching the operation for some minutes, we asked him if he could mechanize it. He replied that other countries did work in this way and that he knew of no country doing it by machines as yet. At his words, I thought to myself: “If this comrade has visited a foreign country, it will possibly have been China; but because they have a great deal of manpower, they probably do it this way; however, a country where techniques are more advanced and labour is short will not use this method; and even if other countries did do it, we should introduce machinery for this process because it is a difficult job.” I asked him again if it was not hard to blow the glass this way, and he answered that he was all right now because he had been trained. So I advised him before I left: “You say it’s all right, but it seems to us that you work extremely hard; it would be better to mechanize the task so that you can work without difficulty.” Recently we visited the factory again for guidance and found glass blowing successfully mechanized as we had instructed. Our inquiry proved that its principle was very simple. In the same way that we pump air into a tonometer when measuring our blood pressure, air was expelled by hand pressure on a rubber bag attached to a pipe. It pumped 232 === [PDF page 241] === out air much better than by blowing through the mouth, to say nothing of making the work easier. I asked the chief engineer of the factory how mechanization had been so successfully introduced in glass blowing despite the statement that it was impossible. He told us that the worker whom we had met before had studied the matter tirelessly after listening to us and had soon succeeded in mechanizing the process. During our guidance, an enlarged meeting of the factory Party committee was held one day, at which the worker made a speech. While living in northeast China before liberation, he had taken up glass blowing and, afterwards, did the same work in south Korea. During the Fatherland Liberation War he joined the Volunteer Corps and was injured in battle. So he was discharged from service and employed in this factory. He said that although he had lived under the government of the so-called Manchukuo and of Syngman Rhee of south Korea, there was no system better than that of our Republic in the world; that when he worked for wages in northeast China and south Korea, he lived from hand to mouth, and was subjected to all kinds of indescribable humiliations and insults even though he underwent great hardships; and that it was like a dream that he, an ordinary worker, was attending the meeting in the presence of the Premier. Then he told the story of the mechanization he had introduced in glass blowing. He said that he thought over the matter by himself all night without taking supper after returning home on that evening of 1963 when he met us. He went on to say: “The Premier whom I have always looked up to since I heard of his legendary fight against the Japanese, when I lived in northeast China, personally visited our factory today and was troubled to see me blowing glass with difficulty before he gave instructions for it to be mechanized; how grateful he is and what a warm love he shows for us workers! However, I told the Premier that mechanization is impossible, so I have committed a really serious sin; why didn’t I say that I would study it?” He reproached himself in this way. Afterwards, he criticized himself at a Party meeting, saying that because he had met the Premier unexpectedly, he was too tense to answer properly and 233 === [PDF page 242] === then he resolved to introduce mechanization by whatever means possible, as instructed by the Premier and he put his resolve into practice with great credit. This example shows that difficult technological problems can be successfully solved by producers if they make up their minds to work hard at them. Some people say that it is difficult to mechanize construction work, but it is illogical to claim that the mechanization which has been carried out in other sectors is impossible here. If effective political work is done among the workers and their wisdom is strongly stimulated, the mechanization of construction work is quite possible. Officials of the State Construction Commission should not try to fell the tree at the first stroke, talking about the application of heavy machines and such like, but should mechanize all construction operations step by step, beginning with simple and easy ones. In this way the building industry should raise labour productivity and radically increase the output per employee. It is true that, at present, the output per worker in this sector is lower than in any other branches and that construction workers hardly produce enough to earn their living. Needless to say, it will be a little hard to raise the per-capita output in the building industry to the level of other production fields. However, if the officials of the State Construction Commission give proper technical guidance to construction, raise the level of mechanization and actively arouse the willing enthusiasm of the workers, the building sector will also be quite possible to increase the per-capita output considerably. In conclusion, you should pay great attention to the development of construction science. As pointed out in the report, the State Construction Commission did not give it the attention which they should have done in the past. Problems such as increasing the production of building materials, mechanizing construction operations, accelerating the speed of construction and improving its quality, should be solved quickly following scientific and technical research. It is of great importance in 234 === [PDF page 243] === the work of the State Construction Commission, therefore, that it should take a deep interest in the development of construction science and direct this work efficiently. In future its officials should radically improve their guidance over scientific research in this field so that construction science will contribute more effectively to faster and more efficient construction as required by the Party. Comrades, our immediate revolutionary task today is to carry out the Seven-Year National Economic Plan with credit. We must at all costs attain all the production goals of steel, coal, electricity, chemical fertilizer, cement, cloth, grain and so on, under the Seven-Year Plan. At the moment the working class and other working people throughout the country are making strenuous efforts to accomplish the Seven-Year Plan, in pursuance of the decision of the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee. The fierce flames of an increased production drive rose at the Hwanghae Iron Works and the Kim Chaek Iron Works and have begun to burn in other factories, enterprises and rural areas. As soon as the Party struck out at passivism and conservatism and beat the drum of victory and advance, those who were timid, overcome by defeatism, have also braced themselves courageously and turned out to attain the important production goals of the Seven-Year Plan which were said to be beyond our reach. They have come to believe that they can attain the goals of steel, cloth and cement, which were regarded as difficult. At present, everything depends on whether or not the construction industry carries out its assignments under the Seven-Year Plan. If you complete all construction projects envisaged in the plan on schedule, we will be able to attain every one of its major targets. You should clearly realize the important place held by the building sector and the mission entrusted to it in all struggles of our people to reach the high peak of the Seven-Year Plan, and you must fight more vigorously to accomplish your revolutionary task with success, without going against the expectations of the Party. 235 === [PDF page 244] === ON SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION IN THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA AND THE SOUTH KOREAN REVOLUTION Lecture at the “Ali Archam” Academy of Social Sciences of Indonesia April 14, 1965 In the past our country was a backward colonial and semi-feudal society ruled by Japanese imperialism. Now, after its liberation from Japanese imperialist colonial rule, Korea has been divided into north and south because of the US imperialist occupation of south Korea. Since liberation, north and south Korea have traversed diametrically different roads. North Korea, where the people took power into their hands, has vigorously proceeded along the road of national independence and progress, while south Korea under the domination of the US imperialists has again taken the road of colonial slavery and reaction. We have freed one half of the country, where we are building a new life. But the other half is still occupied by foreign imperialist aggressive forces, and the national-liberation revolution on a nationwide scale is still unfinished. So, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people are today faced with two revolutionary tasks. 236 === [PDF page 245] === One is to build socialism in the northern half of our country and the other is to liberate south Korea from US imperialist colonial rule and achieve the country’s reunification. These two revolutionary tasks are closely interrelated and the struggle for their fulfilment is a struggle to expedite the ultimate victory of the Korean revolution as a whole. The aim of the Korean communists is to reunify their country, carry out the socialist revolution and socialist construction on a nationwide scale, and then build communism. Our Party, leading the entire Korean people, is striving to achieve this aim. At present, however, different situations prevail in north and south Korea and their revolutions are in different stages of development. Therefore, at the present stage, the revolutionary tasks in north and south Korea must naturally differ, although the Korean revolution is an integral whole. In other words, the immediate revolutionary task in north Korea is to build socialism, whereas the immediate task in south Korea is to carry out the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. We have energetically promoted the socialist revolution and socialist construction in the northern half of Korea, rejecting the erroneous view that north Korea should wait until south Korea is liberated and should not advance the revolution further because south Korea is under US imperialist occupation and our country is not reunified. Meanwhile, we are resolutely against any tendency to forget the revolution in south Korea and the task of reunifying the country while thinking exclusively of socialist construction in the north and being satisfied with its achievements. We have always adhered to the principled stand with which to steadily consolidate north Korea politically, economically and militarily, regarding it as the base for the Korean revolution, and, at the same time, to endeavour to accomplish the south Korean revolution by helping the people in their revolutionary struggle, to bring about national reunification and to complete the revolution to the end throughout the country. 237 === [PDF page 246] === 1. ON THE COURSE OF PROGRESS OF SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION IN THE NORTHERN HALF OF KOREA Since the first days of the seizure of power, our Party has worked hard to convert the northern half into a reliable base for the Korean revolution by accelerating the revolution and construction in the already liberated northern half to the fullest in accordance with the lawful requirements of social development and, at the same time, by building up powerful internal revolutionary forces there. All the revolutionary struggle and construction work we have carried out in the north have been geared to the implementation of this consistent policy of our Party. In the northern half of our country the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution was successfully completed in a year or two following liberation. As a result, the north, based on the victory of the democratic revolution, entered the period of gradual transition to socialism. The socialist revolution and socialist construction in the north hit their stride in the postwar years as the subjective and objective conditions further improved. Our Party and people started building a new society under the conditions which consisted of a backward economy and culture inherited from the old society, a country having been divided into north and south, and a frontal confrontation with the US imperialist forces of aggression. Moreover, we went through a grim three-year war against the armed invasion of the US imperialists and their lackeys. All this caused untold difficulties and complications to our revolutionary struggle and construction work. After the Korean armistice we were faced with the difficult task of 238 === [PDF page 247] === rapidly restoring the ruined national economy and rebuilding the shattered lives of the people in a short period of time, while actively pushing ahead with the socialist revolution. The war damage in our country was indescribably devastating. The US imperialists had dropped an average of 18 bombs on every square kilometre of north Korea, thus reducing our towns and villages to heaps of rubble. Industry, agriculture, railway transport and all other branches of the national economy were completely destroyed and so were educational, cultural and public health establishments. The people had lost practically all their homes, furniture and household goods, and were also very short of food and clothing. In fact, our position was so difficult and we had to face so many complex problems at that time that we were quite at a loss what to tackle first. Under the circumstances, the most important thing was clearly to determine the orientation and the order of priority in reconstruction, and to identify the main link correctly and concentrate our efforts on it. Considering heavy industry the main link for the successful solution of all problems of postwar reconstruction, our Party put forward the line of ensuring the priority growth of heavy industry simultaneously with the development of light industry and agriculture. Also, in developing industry, heavy industry in particular, the Party ensured priority to the rehabilitation of those branches which were essential to our national economy and the people’s living standards at the time, and which could produce immediate economic results. In agriculture, stress was laid on the production of grain in order to solve the food problem, one of the most pressing problems in the postwar period, at the earliest possible date, while carrying out the socialist cooperativization of the individual peasant economy. The Three-Year Plan for Postwar Rehabilitation and Development of the National Economy (1954-56) was drawn up precisely in accordance with this line and policy, and the whole Party and all the people set to work on its fulfilment. The anti-Party elements lurking within the Party, and the 239 === [PDF page 248] === revisionists and dogmatists at home and abroad, were very critical of the line of ensuring the priority growth of heavy industry simultaneously with the development of light industry and agriculture. They cast slurs on our Party line, alleging that “Too much stress is being put on the building of heavy industry while the people are leading a hard life,” “Machines will not give us food,” and the like. Their argument was that everything had to be applied to immediate consumption without their being in the least concerned about the future. It was, in the final analysis, aimed at preventing our country from building its own economic foundations. Our Party resolutely rejected such argument and firmly adhered to the line it had adopted. In this, the Party intended to create, in a short period of time using every possible means, an economic basis which would enable us to stand on our own feet, while improving the lowered living standard of the people as soon as possible. Needless to say, it was a very difficult task to solve the question of the people’s standard of living while at the same time laying the economic foundations, since everything was destroyed and everything was in short supply. But we could not deviate from the demands of the revolution because of these difficulties, nor could we sacrifice the vital interests of the country and the people for a moment’s rest. The Party trusted our people who had been tempered in the flames of war and had rallied firmly around it, and considered that it was definitely possible to carry out the task if the strength of the masses of the people and all the resources of the country were enlisted to the full, and effective use was made of the aid from fraternal countries. Under the leadership of the Party our working people, surmounting manifold difficulties by tightening their belts and waging a hard struggle, overfulfilled the postwar Three-Year Plan before the scheduled time. As a result, the people’s living standard improved considerably, and industrial and agricultural production not only matched, but also far exceeded, the prewar levels. Big strides were also made in the socialist transformation of the old relations of production, particularly in the cooperativization of agriculture. 240 === [PDF page 249] === True, our success was only a start and our economic situation was still difficult in those days. But having finished the postwar rehabilitation work, we were able to live on the assets which we ourselves had created and advance socialist construction more energetically. Having completed the Three-Year Plan, we embarked on the Five-Year Plan in 1957. This was a plan to complete the building of the basis of socialism in our country. On the basis of the successes and experiences already gained in socialist transformation, our Party put forward the task of completing the cooperativization of agriculture and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry in the Five-Year Plan period. The most important task of the Five-Year Plan in socialist construction was to lay foundations for socialist industrialization and solve the problems of food, clothing and housing for the people on the whole. As a result of the successful fulfilment of the postwar Three-Year Plan, our country went over from the period of rehabilitating the national economy to that of its technical reconstruction. Designating the Five-Year Plan as the first stage of technical reconstruction, the Party decided to lay the basis for socialist industrialization in this period and thus further consolidate the foundations of an independent national economy and prepare the material and technical conditions for equipping all branches of the national economy with modern technology in the future. At the same time, we directed enormous efforts towards grain production, the textile industry and housing construction in order to solve the problems of food, clothing and housing which are basic necessities for the people’s life. At the outset of the Five-Year Plan, we were faced with new difficulties and trials. As everyone knows, the period of 1956-57 was the time when modern revisionism raised its head on a wide scale in the international communist movement and the world imperialists and international reactionaries, taking advantage of it, unleashed an extensive 241 === [PDF page 250] === “anti-communist” campaign. In our country at that time the US imperialists entrenched in south Korea and their lackeys kept pace with the international “anti-communist” campaign and stepped up their reactionary offensive against the northern half of Korea as never before. The anti-Party revisionist elements within the Party also attacked it, taking advantage of the complex situation and backed by outside forces. The anti-Party elements and their supporters abroad–revisionists and great-power chauvinists–joined forces in opposition to our Party and engaged in conspiracies to overthrow the leadership of our Party and Government. Over and above this, our economic construction was also beset with a multitude of difficulties. We were short of materials and funds to carry out the enormous Five-Year Plan, and the people’s life was also still hard at the time. How to tide over the complex situation, and with what resources, was the most serious problem before us. We had no alternative but to rely on our Party members and people. Trusting its members and the masses, our Party decided to ride out the difficulties and trials ahead by enlisting their support. And so, while building up its ranks more firmly and uniting the entire people more closely around it and thereby dealing a decisive counterblow to the offensive of the enemies of all kinds both within and without, the Party directed its main effort to the economic construction of socialism. Under the prevailing situation, our Party intended to rouse the whole Party and the entire people to activity to consolidate the positions of our revolution as firmly as a rock and bring about a great upsurge in socialist construction and, in so doing, completely crush all the offensives of internal and external enemies and open up an even wider vista for the revolution and construction work in our country. According to this line of the Party, the December 1956 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, known as a historic plenary meeting in our country, discussed and made decisions on the first year’s tasks of the Five-Year Plan and ways and means for their 242 === [PDF page 251] === implementation. After the plenary meeting, the members of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee and all other cadres went out to factories and villages, where they gave the working people a full report on our difficult situation and roused them to a heroic struggle to overcome the difficulties and trials. Our Party members and working people came out resolutely in support and defence of the Party Central Committee and, by mounting a titanic struggle in response to the Party’s appeal, brought about a great change on all fronts of socialist construction. Everywhere they tapped immense reserves and potentialities, performed feats of labour that had been unthought of in the past, and worked miracles. Industrial output rose 40-50 per cent a year, and in agriculture bumper harvests were reaped year after year. Our towns and villages changed their appearance by the day and the people’s life improved rapidly. This being the situation, the enemy’s “anti-communist” offensive and the anti-Party elements’ attack went by the board altogether, and those who had been vilifying us were also silenced. Meanwhile, the prestige of our Party grew among the masses as never before, our internal unity was further strengthened and socialist construction in our country progressed at a tremendous rate. We turned, so to speak, a misfortune into a blessing through struggle. This is how the great upsurge in socialist construction and the Chollima Movement started in our country. By maintaining the momentum of socialist construction and the Chollima Movement, we fulfilled the vast Five-Year Plan far ahead of schedule. By 1958 agricultural cooperativization and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry were already completed almost simultaneously without impediment. As regards production, the Five-Year Plan was fulfilled in only two and a half years in terms of the total value of industrial output, and it was fulfilled or overfulfilled in four years in indices of products. With the fulfilment of the Five-Year Plan, our country was converted into a socialist industrial-agricultural state with the firm foundation of an independent national economy. Socialist relations of 243 === [PDF page 252] === production came to hold undivided sway in towns and the countryside, while the base of heavy industry, with the machine-building industry as its core, and the base of light industry were laid. Agriculture, too, was put on a firm foundation of production. The people’s living standards improved and all people were freed from any worry or care about food, clothing and housing. In this way, the historic task of laying the foundations of socialism was accomplished triumphantly in the northern half of our country. The Fourth Congress of our Party summed up the results achieved in the fulfilment of the Five-Year Plan and put forward the Seven-Year Plan (1961-67), a magnificent programme of socialist construction. The Seven-Year Plan period, it may be said, marks the decisive stage in socialist construction in the northern half of our country. The fundamental task of the Seven-Year Plan is to carry out the all-round technical and cultural revolutions on the basis of the triumphant socialist system, thereby laying the solid material and technical foundations of socialism and greatly improving the material and cultural life of the people. In a country like ours, which had no industrial revolution and did not go through the normal capitalist stage of development in the past, the technical revolution becomes an especially important task in the period of socialist construction. In accordance with the urgent demands of social development, we have completed the socialist transformation of production relations prior to the technical reconstruction of the national economy, thereby opening up a broad avenue for developing the productive forces, particularly for carrying out the technical revolution. By building the basis of socialist industrialization during the Five-Year Plan, we also laid the material and technical foundations for the all-round technical reconstruction of the national economy. In this way it has become the central problem in the Seven-Year Plan to carry out socialist industrialization completely and provide all branches of the national economy with modern technology. With the fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan our country will 244 === [PDF page 253] === become a socialist industrial state and will have established an independent national economy developed in a many-sided way. As for the people’s standard of living, the problems of food, clothing and housing will be solved more satisfactorily. In the past four years, our working people have already achieved great successes in carrying out the Seven-Year Plan, and they are carrying on a sustained, vigorous struggle for its fulfilment. Needless to say, it is by no means easy to fulfil our Seven-Year Plan, for this is a huge plan and, moreover, we are building the economy against the background of a complex domestic and foreign situation. Because we had to make great efforts to strengthen our defence capabilities still further in order to cope with the prevailing situation in the past two or three years, the economic development of our country, in particular, fell somewhat behind schedule. Nevertheless, our people under the leadership of the Party will fulfil the Seven-Year Plan at all costs by working even harder. 2. ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM To abolish or reorganize the old relations of production based on private ownership and ensure that the socialist relations of production hold undivided sway is the basic content of the socialist revolution. In our country the establishment of socialist relations of production was accomplished through a number of revolutionary reformsexpropriating the property of the imperialists and their stooges, cooperativizing individual peasant farming on the basis of abolishing the feudal relations of land ownership, and transforming private trade and industry along socialist lines. In formerly backward, colonial agrarian countries like ours, where the peasants made up the absolute majority of the population, the 245 === [PDF page 254] === transformation of the socio-economic relations in the countryside is of special importance in building a new society. The most pressing revolutionary task that faced us immediately after liberation was to do away with the feudal relationships predominant in the countryside. We freed the productive forces in agriculture from their feudal shackles and emancipated the peasants from exploitation and enslavement by the landlords by carrying out agrarian reform in a draconian manner–confiscating the landlords’ land without compensation and distributing it among the peasants at no cost. This was a revolutionary change of great significance not only in the speedy development of agriculture and the improvement of the peasants’ standard of living, but also in the strengthening of the worker-peasant alliance and the democratization of the country’s political, economic and cultural life as a whole. The abolition of the feudal relationships, however, is only the first step in solving the rural question. As a result of agrarian reform, the small-commodity-producing economy of the individual peasants became predominant in our countryside. As is generally known, so long as small peasant farming predominates, the productive forces are bound to run up against certain limits in their development, and exploitation and poverty cannot be stamped out completely. In order to free the productive forces in agriculture completely from the fetters of the old production relations and emancipate the peasants once and for all from exploitation and oppression of every description, it is necessary to carry out socialist cooperativization in agriculture. In our country, the cooperativization of agriculture became the most urgent requirement in the postwar period. Because of the war, agriculture was severely ravaged and there was a great shortage of manpower and draught animals. If, under such conditions, individual peasant farming had been left undisturbed, it would have been impossible to restore the agricultural productive forces quickly, to improve the peasants’ standard of living, or, what is more, to solve the problem of the impoverished peasants whose number had further 246 === [PDF page 255] === increased during the war. Most of them were then at the end of their tether, finding it absolutely impossible to farm without joining forces in one way or another. Meanwhile, the socialist state economy, which occupies the leading position in our national economy, was exerting a great influence on individual peasant farming and, in particular, we were able to give material assistance to the peasants’ cooperative movement by relying on the fast-developing socialist industry. As for the balance of class forces in the rural areas, the influence of the rich farmers whose economic foundation had been destroyed in the war was very weak, and, in contrast, our working peasants, through a protracted revolutionary struggle and the severe war, were politically awakened and rallied ever more firmly around the Party. Taking all this into account, our Party set agricultural cooperativization as an immediate task right after the armistice and actively went ahead with the cooperative movement as the peasants’ enthusiasm increased. The cooperativization of agriculture in our country was successfully completed in a short period of only four or five years after the war strictly in accordance with the principles of object lessons and of spontaneity and thanks to the powerful leadership and assistance given by the Party and the state. We first began with the work of forming, on an experimental basis, a few cooperatives in each county with poor peasants and rural Party nuclei who supported cooperativization most actively, and of consolidating them. This was the experimental stage in our agricultural cooperative movement. It is of course necessary to study and assimilate the experiences of other countries in any revolutionary struggle or construction work, but the most important thing is, in any case, one’s own experience. Moreover, one cannot start from scratch such a serious and complex socio-economic reform as agricultural cooperativization on a large scale, by drawing only on the experience of others without accumulating a certain amount of experience of one’s own or merely out of a subjective desire. During the experimental stage we were able to determine the 247 === [PDF page 256] === proper forms, methods and tempo of cooperativization suitable to the actual conditions of our country, and to help our cadres to accumulate experience and gain confidence in leading the cooperative movement. By showing the advantages of cooperative farming to the peasants in practice on the strength of our own experience, we were able to induce them to join the cooperatives voluntarily on a large scale. The leadership and assistance of the working-class party and state are an indispensable condition for the emergence, consolidation and development of the socialist system in the rural areas. We conducted tireless political work among the peasants to lead them along the road of socialist collectivization, and did everything in our power to consolidate the organized cooperatives politically and economically. Our Party’s energetic leadership and the state’s powerful material assistance to the cooperative movement played a decisive part in overcoming all the difficulties of the postwar period and securing a sure victory for the system of socialist cooperative farming. Foreign revisionists and great-power chauvinists and their followers–the anti-Party factionalists in our country–were also very critical of our Party’s policy on agricultural cooperativization. They alleged that agricultural cooperativization was impossible in a situation in which socialist industrialization had not yet been carried out and modern farm machinery were not available. They also alleged that the tempo of agricultural cooperativization was too fast. They did not know anything about the specific realities of our country and did not bother to understand them either. It is obvious that, had we missed the best opportunity when all conditions were ripe for the cooperativization of agriculture, and had we not carried it out rapidly, but waited until we had developed industry enough to mass-produce modern farm machinery, we might have failed to restore agriculture quickly, and this, in the long run, would have retarded the development of industry itself and the national economy, as a whole, much more. Our experience has shown that agricultural cooperativization is possible when conditions urgently demand a transformation of the old 248 === [PDF page 257] === production relations and when enough revolutionary forces have been prepared to undertake it, even though modern farm machinery may be very nearly nonexistent, and that cooperative farming organized in this way is decidedly superior to individual farming. The establishment of socialist production relations in the towns took a different course from that in the countryside. In our country’s economy in the past, industry and other key branches were monopolized by Japanese imperialist capital, while the development of national capital was very much restricted. As a result, right after liberation, the nationalization of industries, along with agrarian reform, presented itself as an important task of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. We nationalized the industries, transport facilities, communications and banks which had been owned by Japanese imperialists and traitors to the nation, and thereby brought the country’s basic means of production under the ownership of the entire people. This was a historic change that wiped out the economic footholds of foreign imperialism and created a socialist state economy for the first time in our country. As a result of the nationalization of industries, the socialist state economy assumed the leading position in our national economy, while capitalist trade and industry which had been insignificant originally could only play a secondary role. Under these conditions, our Party followed the policy of drawing capitalist traders and industrialists into socialist construction and gradually reorganizing their economy, on the basis of the speedy expansion and development of the socialist state economy. After the war, the socialist transformation of capitalist trade and industry became a more urgent requirement. Because of the war damage there was very little capitalist trade and industry left, and even that was mostly reduced to a fragmented economy with little to distinguish it from handicrafts and small trade. Right after the armistice, the entrepreneurs and traders of our country found themselves in a position where they could neither restore their economy nor improve their living without relying on the socialist 249 === [PDF page 258] === economy and pooling their efforts and funds. In the prevailing situation, our Party introduced the policy of transforming the economy of the capitalist traders and industrialists, together with that of handicraftsmen and small traders, along socialist lines through various types of cooperative economy. This conformed both to the demands of socialist construction and to the interests of the entrepreneurs and traders themselves. Almost all the entrepreneurs and traders, therefore, accepted our Party’s policy on cooperativization, and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry was completed in a short time after the war. With the completion of the cooperativization of agriculture and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry, a socialist system free from exploitation and oppression was firmly established in the northern half of our country. This opened a broad avenue for the rapid development of the country’s productive forces and the radical improvement of the people’s material and cultural life. The triumph of the socialist system also created the socio-economic conditions for the political and moral unity of the entire people based on the worker-peasant alliance led by the working class. 3. ON THE ECONOMIC CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIALISM Economic construction is a very important task for a Marxist-Leninist party which has assumed power. Once in power, the Marxist-Leninist party assumes responsibility for the people’s living and is duty-bound to systematically improve their material and cultural well-being. The question of the people’s living can be solved only when economic construction is carried out well. Economic construction also creates material conditions for strengthening the might of the country and for consolidating the 250 === [PDF page 259] === victories already gained in the revolution and further expanding and developing them. Economic construction in the northern half of our country, in particular, has a decisive significance not only for providing a happy life for the people there but also for strengthening our revolutionary base, the guarantee of the country’s reunification, and for assisting the people of south Korea in their revolutionary struggle. From the early days of liberation, therefore, our Party has made every effort to consolidate the economic foundations of the country and steadily improve the people’s standard of living. In our country which was formerly under the colonial yoke of imperialism, to create and develop a modern industry was the most important exercise in the economic construction of socialism. During Japanese imperialist rule our country’s industry was insignificant. Because of the exclusive sway of Japanese imperialist capital the development of the national industry was restricted to the ultimate degree and even our traditional handicrafts were totally ruined. With the sole aim of plundering Korea of her resources and bleeding her people white, the Japanese imperialists built only a few industries producing raw materials and semi-finished goods in our country. The manufacturing industries were negligible, and the machine-building industry, in particular, was practically nonexistent. The technological equipment of industry was totally obsolete. It was this colonial industry which we inherited from the old society, and even that was utterly destroyed by the war. In these circumstances, a modern industry could not be built merely by rehabilitating and developing the industry which already existed. We had to put an end to the colonial imbalance of our industry and radically improve its technological equipment, while ensuring a high rate of growth in its output. On the basis of the nationalization of the major industries which was carried out immediately after liberation, our Party forcefully promoted industrial construction and carried out this work on a large scale particularly in the postwar period. In this way we have achieved great success in the creation of a modern industry. 251 === [PDF page 260] === The annual rate of growth of industrial production in the ten postwar years from 1954 to 1963 averaged 34.8 per cent. Our country’s industrial output in 1964 was about 11 times that of the prewar year, 1949 and more than 13 times that of the pre-liberation year, 1944. As a result of the rapid growth of industrial production, the proportion of industry in the total value of industrial and agricultural output jumped from 28 per cent in 1946 to 75 per cent in 1964. Heavy industry constitutes the basis for the development of the national economy. Unless it is developed, light industry and agriculture cannot be developed, nor can all branches of the national economy be equipped with modern technology. Specifically, heavy industry is the material basis for the country’s political and economic independence, without which we can neither talk about an independent national economy nor strengthen our national defence capabilities. Our Party’s line in regard to the building of heavy industry was to create our own base of heavy industry which would be equipped with new technology and would develop by relying mainly on domestic natural resources and sources of raw materials and would be capable of supplying the needs of our national economy for materials, raw materials, fuel, power, machinery and equipment mainly with locally-produced products. This is explicitly a line of creating an independent modern heavy industry. The most important thing in implementing this policy of our Party was to combine the rehabilitation, reconstruction and new building of heavy industrial plants in a rational way, and synchronize the development of heavy industry with that of light industry and agriculture. The heavy industry we had operated with technologically obsolete equipment and was defective and severely damaged. But, for all that, we could not abandon it. Our Party has followed the policy of restoring the existing foundation of heavy industry and reconstructing and expanding it on the basis of modern technology so as to make the best use of it, and, at the same time, of building new industries and 252 === [PDF page 261] === enterprises which had not previously existed in our country. While steadfastly promoting the priority growth of heavy industry, the Party has also endeavoured to develop it, not just for the sake of having it, but in order that it can most effectively serve the development of light industry and agriculture and the improvement of the people’s standard of living. In this way we were able to build a powerful heavy industry base with comparatively little investment in a historically short time and, on this basis, also develop light industry and agriculture rapidly. Our heavy industry now possesses all the key subdivisions, is equipped with new technology and has its own reliable sources of raw material. In 1964 our country’s heavy industry produced 12,500 million kWh of electricity, 14,400,000 tons of coal, 1,340,000 tons of pig and granulated iron, 1,130,000 tons of steel, more than 750,000 tons of chemical fertilizer, 2,600,000 tons of cement, and large quantities of various types of means of production, machinery and equipment. One of our biggest achievements in the building of heavy industry has been the creation of our own machine-building industry. The revisionists, talking about “international division of labour”, opposed our Party’s line on the building of heavy industry and maintained, among other things, that our country did not need to develop the machine-building industry but should produce only minerals and other raw materials. Of course, we could not follow this kind of advice. Our Party had already started building machine factories underground during the war, and rapidly expanded the machine-building industry after the war. Entering the period of the Five-Year Plan, we set about developing this industry extensively so as to produce, by ourselves as far as possible, not only small- and medium-size machinery, equipment and accessories but also heavy machinery and equipment required by our national economy. This was a very difficult task for us, as we had no experience and 253 === [PDF page 262] === lacked technology. It goes without saying that those who disapproved of the development of the machine-building industry in our country could not help us. When we produced tractors, motorcars and other modern machinery and equipment for the first time, we had to do everything ourselves, from designing to assembling. Our workers and technicians met with many a setback, but they gritted their teeth and set to until at last they succeeded in turning out these machines and equipment, and were able to mass-produce them. We also launched a massive let-each-machine-tool-make-more movement to make machine tools in all places where machine tools were already in existence, thereby rapidly extending the foundations of the machine-building industry and, at the same time, convincing our working people that they were capable of making any type of machines. Our country’s machine-building industry was created by means of this hard-fought struggle. But in the process our working people accumulated invaluable experience, gained a stronger belief in their own strength and talents, and showed a still greater attachment for the machines and equipment they had made with their own hands under all sorts of difficulties. And so, although our country did not have the machine-building industry in the past, we are now producing most of the machinery and equipment including generating, chemical and metallurgical equipment, motorcars, tractors, excavators and other heavy machines and equipment needed by our national economy. In 1964 the proportion of the machine-building industry in industrial output was 25.8 per cent and the rate of domestic supply in machinery and equipment reached 94.3 per cent. Today our heavy industry with the machine-building industry as its core, forms the reliable material foundation to equip all branches of the national economy with modern technology and to guarantee the political and economic independence of the country. Light industry was one of the most backward sectors in our country. We have made great efforts to build up our own base of light 254 === [PDF page 263] === industry capable of meeting the needs of our people. Our Party’s policy in the production of consumer goods for the people is to develop small- and medium-scale local industry alongside large-scale central industry. We have built many large-scale central industry plants which constitute the backbone of light industry, and have constantly strengthened their technological equipment, thereby actively increasing the production of various consumer goods. But in view of the economic situation of the country, we could not build many large-scale light industry factories at once. If we had relied on them alone, we would not have been able to eradicate the backwardness in light industry quickly nor would we have been able to meet the rapidly growing needs of the people in any way. A decisive measure was needed to bring about a change in the production of consumer goods for the people. Our Party, therefore, decided to develop the production of consumer goods as an all-people movement, and put forward the policy of building more than one local industry factory in every city or county. The working people in all parts of the country rose as one to carry through the Party’s policy and built more than 1,000 in only a few months without spending a large amount of state funds, by mobilizing surplus local materials and manpower, with the result that many kinds of consumer goods were turned out in large quantities. Our country has now upwards of 2,000 local industry factories, the technological equipment of which has been improved considerably. Our local industry accounts for more than half the country’s output of consumer goods. Our experience shows that in general it is rational in light industry, in view of its economic and technological peculiarities, to develop small- and medium-scale factories alongside the large ones. It also shows, particularly, that it is an effective way of increasing the production of consumer goods and rapidly developing industry as a whole in the backward countries to build many small-scale local factories which are technologically comparatively simple. The 255 === [PDF page 264] === construction of local industry is also of great importance for the balanced development of all regions of the country, and especially for bringing industry closer to agriculture and for the gradual elimination of the distinctions between town and country. We have built our own base for light industry, which consists of central and local industries, and so we now have the ability to ensure our people’s living with nationally produced consumer goods. Let us take only the textile industry, for example. The output of fabrics increased 195 times that before liberation, with 25 metres of various fabrics being produced per head of the population. The food industry and the production of consumer goods have also progressed apace. Our consumer goods are not yet of high quality and their variety is also not so wide as is required. But our working people are proud that all the goods they use are made by their own hands, and they are very happy to use them. In the near future we will solve the question of raising the quality of consumer goods on the whole to world standards and widening their variety even more. The rural question occupies a very important place in socialist construction. It is the problem of the socio-economic position of the peasantry as an ally of the working class, and the problem of the development of the productive forces in agriculture, one of the two major branches of the national economy. The completion of socialist agricultural cooperativization marks a historic landmark in the solution of this question. But it still does not mean the final solution of the rural question. Following the establishment of the socialist system in rural areas, it becomes necessary, on the basis of a steady consolidation of this system, to develop the productive forces in agriculture to a high level, give the peasants a prosperous life, liquidate the backwardness of the countryside left over by the exploiter society, and gradually eliminate the distinctions between town and country. In a socialist society, too, agriculture is weaker than industry in its material and technical foundations; the cultural level of the rural 256 === [PDF page 265] === population is lower than that of the urban population, and the peasants are behind the workers in ideological consciousness. Because of this backwardness of the countryside in comparison with the towns, cooperative property remains the dominant pattern in agriculture, unlike in industry where the property of the whole people predominates. And so there is still a class distinction between the working class and the peasantry. The rural question will finally be solved only when the distinctions between town and country and the class distinction between the working class and the peasantry are eliminated. For the successful solution of the rural question in a socialist society, it is necessary to carry out the technical, cultural and ideological revolutions thoroughly in the rural areas, strengthen the support for the countryside in every way, steadily improve the guidance and management of agriculture, and continuously bring cooperative property closer to the property of the whole people. Our rural work has been carried on in accordance with these principles since the cooperativization of agriculture. In the past our country’s agriculture was based on backward mediaeval techniques. And cooperativization was introduced with practically no technical reconstruction of agriculture. Thus, the technical revolution in the countryside became the most urgent problem for the development of socialist cooperative agriculture. As the cooperativization was nearing completion and industry developed, our Party immediately set about the rural technical revolution. The Party defined irrigation, mechanization, electrification and the use of chemicals as the basic tasks of this revolution, and began with irrigation. Since agriculture, unlike industry, depends largely on natural geographical conditions, and climatic conditions in particular, irrigation constitutes the basic guarantee of high and stable harvests in farming. In the postwar period we carried out large-scale nature-remaking projects for irrigation in an all-people movement, 257 === [PDF page 266] === investing large amounts of state funds. As a result, we have basically overcome the damage from drought and flood in agriculture, and have laid the solid foundation for production free from crop failure. Great success has also been attained in mechanization, electrification and the use of chemicals. Our countryside now has 20,000 tractors (in terms of 15 hp units), which means one tractor for every 100 hectares of crop area and about 300 kilogrammes of chemical fertilizer are applied to each hectare. In the pre-liberation days our rural areas had no electricity, but now it is supplied to 95.5 per cent of all the rural ri and 81 per cent of all the farmhouses. While promoting irrigation, mechanization, electrification and chemical application, we have exerted untiring efforts to introduce the achievements of agricultural science and advanced farming technology extensively and, in particular, to develop intensive methods of farming. Thanks to all this, agricultural production has continued to develop fast in our country. Grain output has doubled in comparison with the pre-liberation period. Stockbreeding and other branches of the rural economy have also made great progress. The food problem, historically one of our most difficult problems, has been solved in the main and we have for some years now been self-sufficient in the supply of food. As a result of the development of the productive forces in agriculture and the vigorous advance of the cultural and ideological revolutions in the countryside, the appearance of our rural areas has changed, the living standards of the peasants have improved and their political awakening and level of consciousness have risen. Our socialist system of cooperative farming has been further consolidated and developed and a rational system has also been established in the guidance and management of agriculture. Needless to say, when viewed against the huge tasks of socialist rural construction, the achievements we have made in rural work are still in their initial stages. But we have laid the solid foundation for the construction of a socialist countryside. Besides, from our own 258 === [PDF page 267] === achievements and experiences, we have found the right orientation for the solution of the socialist rural question, and can clearly recognize our future tasks in rural work. Our Party and people will continue to solve the rural question creditably on the basis of what we have already accomplished and in accordance with the orientation and tasks laid down. One of the most important subjects in socialist construction in a backward country is the training of national cadres. Immediately after liberation we were very short of national cadres, above all in technology, and this was one of the biggest obstacles to the state administration and economic and cultural construction. The question of national cadres, therefore, was always an acute problem for us. The question of old intellectuals is of great importance in building up the ranks of national technical cadres. Whether or not the old intellectuals are drawn into the construction of a new society greatly affects the economic and cultural development of the country, and this is especially true in the early stage of the revolution. It is true that the old intellectuals of our country come mostly from the propertied classes, and they served the imperialists and exploiting classes in the past. But, as intellectuals of a colonial country, they were subjected to oppression and national discrimination by foreign imperialists and, accordingly, they already had a revolutionary mettle. Taking into full account the important role played by the intellectuals in the construction of a new society and the characteristics of our intellectuals, since the early days of liberation our Party has pursued the policy of including them and remoulding them into intellectuals who serve the working people. Inspired by the Party’s policy, the absolute majority of the old intellectuals came over to the side of the people after liberation and took an active part in the revolutionary struggle and construction work. Thus, they have made a valuable contribution to the economic and cultural construction of the country and continue to do so. Through the persistent education by the Party and the ordeals of the 259 === [PDF page 268] === revolutionary struggle, especially through the trials of the Fatherland Liberation War against the armed invasion by the US imperialists, our old intellectuals have now been transformed into excellent socialist intellectuals and have matured into important national cadres. While reforming the old intellectuals, our Party paid the greatest attention to the training of new national cadres from among the working people. With a view to expanding the ranks of national cadres rapidly, the Party adopted the policy of giving priority to the work of training cadres and educational work. Though we had no experience and were not adequately provided with all the necessary conditions, we set up many institutions of higher learning, including Kim Il Sung University, and expanded the network of schools at all levels on a large scale immediately after liberation. We continued to train national cadres even during the grim war years and, after the war, exerted still greater efforts to this work. In our country a system of compulsory primary education was introduced as early as 1956 and a system of compulsory secondary education was established in 1958. We will introduce compulsory nine-year technical education in the coming few years. Pupils and students, numbering about one quarter of the total population, are now studying in more than 9,000 schools of all levels in our country, of whom university students alone number 156,000. Another important policy consistently followed by our Party in education and the training of cadres is the close combination of general education with technical education and of education with productive labour. We have reorganized the former system of secondary education to establish a system of technical education, and further improved the content of education, so that all the younger generation can acquire a certain amount of technological knowledge along with general knowledge of the fundamentals of science. Our country has also set up a widespread study-while-work system of education which is made up of networks of evening schools and correspondence courses, factory colleges and communist universities with the result that large numbers 260 === [PDF page 269] === of working people are receiving secondary and higher technical education without being withdrawn from production. Despite the country’s difficult economic conditions, we have thus directed enormous efforts to the training of cadres and to education, overcoming all difficulties and obstacles, in order to rid ourselves of backwardness quickly and further accelerate our rate of advance. As a result, we have been able to build up the ranks of our own national cadres in a comparatively short period of time, and made sure of bringing up even large numbers of new cadres in the future. As of October 1964, the technicians and experts working in all fields of the national economy of our country numbered more than 290,000. All factories and enterprises, including large modern plants, are managed and operated entirely by our own technical cadres. In this way we have not only established an advanced, socialist system in the northern half of Korea, but have laid the economic and cultural foundations which enable us to build up the economic life of our country by our own efforts. This establishes an asset for the happy life of our people and the future prosperity of our society. It also shows that we have firmly built up our revolutionary base politically, economically and culturally, and constitutes a reliable guarantee for the reunification of our country and for the final victory of the Korean revolution. 4. ON THE QUESTIONS OF ESTABLISHING JUCHE FIRMLY AND OF IMPLEMENTING THE MASS LINE All our victories and successes in the socialist revolution and the building of socialism are attributable to our Party’s Marxist-Leninist leadership and to the heroic struggle of our people for the implementation of the Party’s policies. The complete establishment of Juche was most important for our 261 === [PDF page 270] === Party to give correct leadership to the Korean people in their revolutionary struggle and construction work. To establish Juche means holding fast to the principle of solving for oneself all problems of the revolution and construction in conformity with the existing conditions in one’s country, and mainly by one’s own efforts. This is a realistic and creative stand which opposes dogmatism and applies the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism and the experience of the international revolutionary movement to one’s country in conformity with its historical conditions and national peculiarities. This represents an independent stand of doing away with the spirit of relying on others, of displaying the spirit of self-reliance and solving one’s own problems on one’s own responsibility under all circumstances. The Korean communists are making a revolution in Korea. The Korean revolution is the basic duty of the Korean communists. It is obvious that we cannot make the Korean revolution when we are ignorant of, and removed from, the reality of the situation in Korea. Marxism-Leninism, too, can become a powerful weapon of our revolution only if it is applied to our country’s reality. Masters of the Korean revolution are our Party and our people; the decisive factor in the victory of the Korean revolution, too, is our own strength. It is self-evident that we cannot make a revolution by relying on others, and that others cannot make the Korean revolution for us. International support and encouragement are important to the revolution, to be sure, but, above all, work and struggle by ourselves, the masters, are essential for the advancement of the revolution and its victorious conclusion. There are, in the world, large and small countries and parties with a long or short history of struggle. Nevertheless, all parties are fully independent and equal and, on this basis, cooperate closely with each other. Each party carries on its revolutionary struggle under the specific circumstances and conditions of its own country; by so doing it enriches the experience of the international revolutionary movement and contributes to its further development. The idea of Juche conforms to 262 === [PDF page 271] === this principle of the communist movement, and stems directly from it. The problem of establishing Juche has acquired special importance for the Korean communists in view of the circumstances and conditions of our country and the complexity and difficulty of our revolution. While resolutely fighting in defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism against revisionism, our Party has made every effort to establish Juche in opposition to dogmatism and flunkeyism towards great powers. Juche in ideology, independence in politics, self-support in the economy and self-reliance in national defence–this is the stand our Party has consistently adhered to. Holding fast to the principles of Marxism-Leninism, our Party studies and analyses the way things are in Korea and, on this basis, determines its policies independently. Unrestrained by any existing formulas or propositions, we boldly put into practice whatever conforms to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and the circumstances in our country. We respect the experiences of other countries, but always take a critical attitude towards them. So we accept any experience that is beneficial to us, but reject any that is unnecessary and harmful. Even when introducing a good practice from another country, we do so by remodelling and modifying it to suit the actual conditions of our country. Our Party has always maintained an independent stand in its approach to the international communist movement and, likewise, in its struggle against modern revisionism in particular. We are resolutely fighting against modern revisionism, and this fight is invariably conducted on the basis of our own judgement and conviction and in conformity with our actual conditions. We consider that only by holding firmly to such a stand can we correctly wage the struggle against revisionism and make substantial contributions to the defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the strengthening of the unity of the international communist movement. If one fails to establish Juche in the ideological and political fields, 263 === [PDF page 272] === one will be unable to display any creative initiative because one’s faculty of independent thinking will be paralysed, and in the end one will even be unable to tell right from wrong and will blindly follow what others do. Anyone who has lost his identity and independence in this way can fall into revisionism, dogmatism and every description of Right and “Left” opportunism and can eventually bring the revolution and construction to naught. There was also a time in our country when some of the cadres had been infected with dogmatism and flunkeyism towards great powers, and they did quite a bit of harm to our work. The dogmatists disregarded our conditions without studying them and sought to swallow the experience of others whole and copy it without thinking. This sort of person, who simply looked up to others and became accustomed only to copying them, slid down in the end into national nihilism, where everything that is his own is disparaged and everything foreign is praised. This tendency was manifested most seriously on the ideological front. The dogmatists, instead of studying, explaining and giving publicity to our Party’s policies, merely echoed other people like parrots. They even went so far as to deny our people’s history of struggle and revolutionary traditions, and tried to paralyse the creativity of our scholars in scientific research work. They also tried to teach the students what they had copied in toto from others in education, discarding everything national and spreading only foreign trends in literature and art. In our country the harm done by dogmatism was revealed most glaringly during the war, and became all the more intolerable in the postwar period as the socialist revolution and the building of socialism progressed rapidly. Moreover, it gradually dawned on us in this period that the revisionist trend creeps in through the medium of dogmatism. In 1955, therefore, our Party set forth the definite policy of establishing Juche, and has been persistently waging an energetic ideological struggle to carry it through ever since. The year 1955 marked a turning point in our Party’s consistent struggle against dogmatism. It was also at that time, in fact, that we started our fight 264 === [PDF page 273] === against modern revisionism which had emerged within the socialist camp. Our struggle against dogmatism was thus linked with the conflict against modern revisionism. It was of paramount importance in establishing Juche to strengthen the study of Marxism-Leninism among the cadres and Party members and, at the same time, to equip them firmly with their Party’s ideas, its policies. We have effectively conducted ideological work among the cadres and Party members so that all of them think in terms of the Party’s intentions, make a deep study of Party policies, work in accordance with them and strive devotedly for their implementation. Our experience shows that when the Party ranks are firmly united in both ideology and organization, dogmatism can be overcome, the infiltration of revisionism can be prevented and all work can be done creditably in line with the Party’s intentions. At the same time, we decisively intensified the study of our country’s past and present and our people’s revolutionary and cultural traditions among all the Party members and working people. We saw to it that in all sectors of the ideological front including science, education, literature and art, things of our own country are given priority, national traditions are honoured and our fine national heritage is carried forward. The advanced culture of other countries is also introduced, not in its entirety, but through assimilation to convert it into ours. These measures have greatly boosted the national pride of our people and their awareness of independence, and have led them to reject the tendency of automatically imitating other people’s ways and to endeavour to do everything in conformity with the existing conditions in our country. As a result of the establishment of Juche, science and technology have progressed with great rapidity, changes have taken place in the quality of education and the training of cadres, and a new, socialist national culture, suitable to the life and sentiments of our people, has blossomed and developed. While establishing Juche in the ideological and political spheres, our Party has, in the economic sphere, held fast to the principle of 265 === [PDF page 274] === self-reliance and the line of building an independent national economy. If one lacks the spirit of self-reliance, one will eventually lose faith in one’s own strength and make little effort to mobilize one’s national resources and, accordingly, one cannot carry out the revolutionary cause. We are engaged in the revolutionary struggle and construction work with a determination to carry out the Korean revolution by our own efforts and build socialism and communism in our country by our own labour and with our own national resources. Needless to say, we fully recognize the importance of international support and encouragement and consider foreign aid a necessity. But we reject the erroneous ideological viewpoint and attitude of slackening our own revolutionary struggle while waiting for an advantageous international opportunity, or of making no effort ourselves while simply turning to other countries for aid. Both in the revolutionary struggle and in construction work, self-reliance must be given priority, while support and encouragement from outside are regarded as secondary. Only when one strives in this spirit can one expedite the revolution and construction of one’s country to the maximum and also contribute to the development of the international revolutionary movement. In the period of postwar rehabilitation our country received economic and technical aid from fraternal countries amounting to some 500 million rubles (550 million dollars), and this, of course, was of great help to our reconstruction. But in those days, too, it was our principle to enlist the forces of our people and our national resources to the fullest; at the same time we also tried to make effective use of the aid from the fraternal countries. In fact, it was our own forces that played the decisive role in postwar reconstruction. There is no need to make further mention of the achievements scored in the economic construction of our country in subsequent years. We have thus laid the solid foundations of an independent national economy on the principle of self-reliance. Economic independence is an indispensable requisite for the 266 === [PDF page 275] === building of a rich and strong and civilized independent state. Without building an independent national economy, it is impossible to guarantee the firm political independence of a country, develop the productive forces and improve the people’s standard of living. Socialism means the complete abolition of national inequality along with class exploitation, and requires an all-round development of the economy, science and technology. It is therefore natural that the economy of socialism should be an independent economy developed comprehensively. We by no means oppose economic cooperation between states or advocate building socialism in isolation. What we do reject is the great-power chauvinist tendency to check the independent and comprehensive development of the economy of other countries and, furthermore, to subordinate their economy to one’s own on the pretext of “economic cooperation” and “international division of labour”. We consider that mutual cooperation should be based on the building of an independent national economy in each country, and that this alone makes possible the steady expansion and development of economic cooperation between states on the principles of complete equality and mutual benefit. Today our country is developing its economy by relying mainly on its own technology, its own resources and on the efforts of its own cadres and people; it is meeting the domestic needs for heavy and light industrial goods and agricultural produce mainly with its own products. As for our country’s economic relations with foreign countries, they are those of filling each other’s needs and assisting each other on the principles of complete equality and mutual benefit, and these relations are manifested through foreign trade and in various other ways. Having laid the solid foundations of an independent national economy, we have come to possess our own economic basis for increasing the wealth and power of the country and markedly raising the people’s living standard, and have developed the capacity to 267 === [PDF page 276] === expand and promote economic cooperation with other countries. Our economic independence also constitutes the reliable material basis for guaranteeing the country’s political independence and strengthening its defence capabilities. Along with the establishment of Juche, the implementation of the mass line has been one of the most important subjects in our Party’s leadership of the revolution and construction work. Believing that the decisive guarantee for the acceleration of the socialist revolution and the building of socialism consists of enlisting all the creative energies of the masses of the people and offering full scope for their enthusiasm, creative initiative and talents, our Party has consistently held to the revolutionary mass line in all its activities. Our Party has been able to achieve great successes in the socialist revolution and the building of socialism by relying on the great revolutionary enthusiasm and inexhaustible creative powers of our people who, taking their destiny in their own hands, go all out to build a new life. The Party, always placing faith in the masses, consulted them and enlisted their forces and wisdom in overcoming any difficulties and trials it encountered. We have also successfully carried out many large and difficult construction projects by launching mass campaigns. The let-each-machine-tool-make-more movement, the building of local industry factories, enormous nature-remaking projects for irrigation, and the reconstruction of towns and villages which had been reduced to rubble–all this was carried out through mass campaigns, through all-people drives. In our country, science and technology are also developing rapidly in a mass movement through creative cooperation between the scientists and technicians on the one hand and the workers and peasants on the other; literature and the arts are also flourishing gloriously through the amalgamation of the activities of professional writers and artists with the literary and artistic activities of the broad masses. The practice of relying on the masses and rousing the broad masses 268 === [PDF page 277] === to activity is a revolutionary and positive method, and it makes it possible to mobilize all potentialities and possibilities to the fullest in the revolution and construction. The Marxist-Leninist party must implement the mass line at all times, both before and after seizing power, both in the revolutionary struggle and in construction work. And the danger of going back on the mass line increases once the party seizes power. Upon its foundation after liberation, our Party assumed the leadership of the government, and many of our officials had had little experience in the revolutionary struggle and mass work in the past. It was, therefore, a particularly important matter for us to improve their method and style of work to carry out the mass line. Our Party has waged a vigorous ideological struggle to eliminate bureaucracy and establish the revolutionary mass viewpoint amongst officials. The Party has made tireless efforts to induce all officials to acquire the revolutionary work method of going deep among the masses, consulting them, deriving strength and wisdom from them and mobilizing them to fulfil the tasks which lie ahead. The method of work which is called the Chongsanri method in our country, is precisely the embodiment and development of our Party’s mass line in conformity with the new realities of socialist construction. Fundamentally the Chongsanri method consists in the fact that the higher bodies help the lower ones, superiors help their subordinates, political work is given priority and the masses are roused to carry out the revolutionary tasks. Through the spread of the Chongsanri method, we have decisively improved the officials’ method and style of work and brought about a big change in the work of the Party, state and economic bodies. To give priority to political work is the most important thing in drawing out the revolutionary zeal and creative energy of the masses of the people. Communists always fight in defence of the people’s interests and for their happiness. To this end, the broad masses of the people should be awakened and mobilized. One of the intrinsic advantages of 269 === [PDF page 278] === socialism is that under this system the working people, freed from exploitation and oppression, display voluntary enthusiasm and creative initiative in their work for the country and society and for their own welfare. To conduct political work well among the masses and thereby induce them to perform the revolutionary tasks voluntarily is, therefore, a powerful method of work stemming from the inherent character of communists and from the very nature of the socialist system. It is basically wrong to concentrate only on economic and technological work while neglecting political work, and to lay stress on material incentives only, without raising the political and ideological consciousness of the working people. Our Party has firmly adhered to the principle of giving priority to political work in all matters. In carrying out any revolutionary task we began by thoroughly explaining and bringing home to all the Party members and the masses the Party’s policy with regard to the task and made sure that they held mass discussions about ways and means of executing the Party’s policy and strove to carry it through with a high degree of political consciousness and enthusiasm. To raise the class awareness of the working people and their level of political and ideological consciousness, we have also briskly carried on communist education among them in combination with education in the Party’s policies and our revolutionary traditions. Political work is precisely work with people, and it is basic to Party work. Lacking the Party’s leadership, the masses cannot be mobilized, nor can socialism and communism be built. Only on the basis of increasing the leading role of the Party and constantly strengthening Party work in all spheres, have we been able to succeed in carrying out the principle of giving priority to political work. By energetically carrying on political work, work with people, which is the basis of Party work, we have been able to lead our working people to display a high degree of revolutionary enthusiasm and creative energy and to inspire them to mass heroism and mass 270 === [PDF page 279] === enthusiasm for labour. To raise the Party’s leading role and give definite priority to political work, combining this properly with economic and technological work, and to raise the working people’s political awakening and level of consciousness steadily in proper combination with material incentives, is the basic method our Party employs in mobilizing the masses for socialist construction. To educate and remould the masses of all walks of life and unite them solidly around the Party was very important in carrying out our Party’s mass line. The political unity and solidarity of the people in the northern half of Korea is not only the decisive guarantee for building a new life there, but is also one of the basic factors in reunifying the country and achieving the victory of the Korean revolution. Our Party has consistently and tirelessly worked to rally the people of all walks of life in the northern half closely around it and to convert our revolutionary base into a stronger political force. The protracted colonial rule of Japanese imperialism, the partition of the country and, particularly, the enemy’s alienation manoeuvrings during the war, have made the social and political composition of the population of our country very complex. However, we cannot make a revolution with only perfect people, casting aside all those whose social status and social and political life are complicated. Therefore, our Party, closely combining the class line with the mass line, has followed the policy of winning over to the side of revolution everybody save the handful of malicious elements. Under conditions where the socialist system had already triumphed and the Party’s force had grown extensively and its authority and prestige had become unshakably established among the masses, we considered it possible to educate and reform everyone, except the confirmed reactionaries with a hostile class origin. And so we boldly trusted and embraced even those whose social status and records of social and political life were checkered, and guaranteed them conditions for working in peace, provided that they 271 === [PDF page 280] === now supported our Party and showed enthusiasm in their work. Experience has fully confirmed the correctness of this policy of our Party. By carrying through the policy we have been able to re-educate the broad masses from all walks of life and are continuing to do so. Although the composition of our population is complex and we are facing the enemy at close range, our Party has today firmly united the mass of the people around it, and a cheerful, optimistic atmosphere prevails in our society. The all-people Chollima Movement which has been under way with unabated vigour in our country is the most brilliant embodiment of our Party’s mass line. The Chollima Movement represents a mass drive which organically fuses collective innovations in economic and cultural construction with the work of re-educating the working people. Through the Chollima Movement all the wisdom, enthusiasm and creative energy of our people are brought into full play, innovations are effected in all spheres of the economy, culture, thought and morality, and the building of socialism in our country is greatly accelerated. The Chollima Movement is the general line of our Party in socialist construction. The essence of this line is to unite all the working people more firmly around the Party by changing them through education in communist ideas and to give ample scope to their revolutionary fervour and creative talents so as to build socialism better and faster. We will continue to expand the Chollima Movement and develop it in depth, and so further expedite the building of socialism in the northern half of our country. 5. ON THE SOUTH KOREAN REVOLUTION Inasmuch as it is a revolution for liberating one half of the territory and two-thirds of the population of our country still under the control 272 === [PDF page 281] === of foreign imperialism, the revolution in south Korea constitutes an important part of the Korean revolution as a whole. For the reunification of our country and the victory of the Korean revolution, it is necessary to consolidate the revolutionary forces in south Korea while strengthening the socialist forces in the north and carry out the revolution in south Korea while promoting socialist construction in the north. Since the first days of their occupation of south Korea, the US imperialists have pursued a policy of military aggression and colonial enslavement. As a result, south Korea has been completely turned into a colony, a military base of the US imperialists. The south Korean “regime”, since it is a puppet regime installed by the US imperialists by force of arms, is nothing but a docile instrument for executing the instructions of its US overlords. Through this puppet regime and with their so-called “aid” as bait, the US imperialists have placed all the political, economic, cultural and military spheres of south Korea under their control. Using the slogan of “joint defence” as a pretext they have directly thrown the US aggressive forces, nearly 60,000 strong, into south Korea. Not only that, but the US army commander holds full power of command over the south Korean army in the name of the so-called “Commander of the UN Forces”. The US troops who are occupying south Korea insult and barbarously massacre innocent people. They have introduced nuclear and rocket weapons into south Korea, thus converting it into their military base for aggression and constantly jeopardizing peace in Korea. The US imperialists’ “aid” to south Korea serves as a major means of aggression and plunder. They gave some 12,000 million dollars in “aid” to south Korea between 1945 and 1964, of which 3,600 million dollars were economic “aid” and all the rest, military. The US imperialists’ military “aid” goes to meet part of the military expenditure for the upkeep of the more than 600,000 strong puppet 273 === [PDF page 282] === army of south Korea. This is a mercenary army geared entirely to the US imperialists’ policy of aggression. The upkeep of one division of the south Korean puppet army costs the US imperialists as little as only a twenty-fifth of the upkeep of a US army division. Thus, by forcibly conscripting young and middle-aged south Koreans and using them for their aggressive purposes, the US imperialists are “saving” themselves enormous sums in war expenses, while imposing heavy burdens of military expenditure on the south Korean people. Also, by keeping the huge puppet army in their service in place of their own troops, they give the south Korean army a semblance of serving some sort of national interests and pass themselves off as some kind of “helpers”. The economic “aid” of the US imperialists, too, is nothing but a means to subordinate the economy of south Korea to their ends of military aggression and colonial plunder. By incorporating “aid funds” into the puppet government’s budget, the US imperialists have obtained a tight grip on the “government” budget and, through the supply of those funds, control the banking organizations and enterprises in south Korea. In this way they control 45 to 50 per cent of south Korea’s financial budget and 30 per cent of its banking funds, and monopolize 70 to 80 per cent of its raw material supply and 80 per cent of its import trade. Today the south Korean economy is tied up inextricably to the United States; the financial and economic organizations and enterprises in south Korea are in a position where they will have to stop operations the moment US imperialist “aid” is cut off. All this convincingly shows that US imperialism is the real ruler in south Korea. In order to secure a more favourable foothold for their colonial domination following their occupation of south Korea, the US imperialists reorganized part of the socio-economic relations in south Korea. In their aggression against south Korea, they attached prime importance to the fostering of comprador capital, which was to play 274 === [PDF page 283] === the role of middleman in the disposal of the surplus goods from their country, and of guide for the penetration of US private capital, the agent in their plunder of the resources and local purveyor of some war materials. They built up the position of comprador capital by such means as handing over the properties formerly owned by Japanese imperialists to private capitalists and speculators for a mere song or enabling them to amass exorbitant profits through the monopoly of the rights to purchase and sell the aid goods the US imperialists dumped in south Korea. Thus, today some 500 comprador capitalists account for about 40 per cent of south Korea’s manufacturing industries, around 80 per cent of its mining industry and more than 50 per cent of its foreign trade, whereas during Japanese imperialist rule the share of south Korea’s comprador capital in the composition of its key industries was barely 6 per cent. The US imperialists have preserved intact the feudal exploiting system in the south Korean countryside which is favourable to their colonial domination and pillage. They enforced so-called agrarian reform in south Korea, but this was no more than a piece of trickery designed to quell the demand for land on the part of the south Korean peasants who had been inspired by the agrarian reform in north Korea. Even after the enforcement of this agrarian reform the feudal relations of exploitation remain as predominant as ever in the south Korean rural areas and the peasants’ economy has become even more fragmented than before. Today, about 100,000 landlords hold 40 per cent of the total area under cultivation and exploit 1,400,000 peasant households in south Korea. These peasants have to pay farm rents ranging from 50 to 60 per cent of their harvests, and most of them are held in bondage to the landlords and rich farmers through loans at usurious rates of interests. US imperialism thus set up a system of colonial rule following its occupation of south Korea and, on this basis, has been enforcing an unheard-of military dictatorship over the people. In south Korea, policemen and bureaucrats alone number more 275 === [PDF page 284] === than 155,000. At present, 370,000 special political agents have been unleashed against the people there. This colonial-type social, political and economic system has become fetters hindering the development of the economy and the democratization of social life in south Korea. South Korea’s national economy is now totally bankrupt and the level of its industrial production stands at no more than 85 per cent of what it was at the time of liberation. South Korea’s agriculture is likewise in an acute crisis. Agricultural output has dropped to two-thirds of what it was at the time of liberation. South Korea, once known as the granary of our country, has now become an area of chronic famine which has to import 800,000 to 1,000,000 tons of cereals every year. Today there are roughly seven million unemployed and semi-unemployed in south Korea, and every year more than one million peasant households suffer from lack of food during the spring shortages. The national culture and the beautiful manners and good customs peculiar to the Korean people are utterly trampled underfoot and the decadent and degenerate American way of life is corrupting all that is sound in social life. The people are denied all political rights and are living under a reign of terrorism and tyranny. This economic catastrophe and the wretched social position of the people in south Korea have produced acute social, class and national contradictions. The basic contradiction in south Korean society at the present stage is the contradiction between US imperialism and its accomplices–the landlords, comprador capitalists and reactionary bureaucrats–on the one hand and the workers, peasants, urban petty bourgeois and national capitalists on the other. Therefore, to attain freedom and liberation, the people in south Korea must drive out the US imperialist forces of aggression and destroy their accomplices–the landlords, comprador capitalists and 276 === [PDF page 285] === reactionary bureaucrats. Of these US imperialism is the No. 1 target of struggle for the south Korean people. There can be no freedom and liberation for the people or social progress, nor can the reunification of our country be achieved, until the US imperialist aggressive troops are driven out and its colonial rule is abolished in south Korea. The revolution in south Korea is a national-liberation revolution against the foreign imperialist forces of aggression, and a democratic revolution against the forces of feudalism. The motive force of this revolution in south Korea is the working class and its most reliable ally, the peasantry, and the students, intellectuals and people of the small-propertied classes who are opposed to the imperialist and feudal forces. The national capitalists, too, can take part in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal struggle. Our Party, with support of the socialist forces in north Korea, has all along been waging a stubborn struggle to carry out the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution in south Korea by mobilizing all its patriotic, democratic forces. The path ahead for the south Korean revolution is beset with many difficulties and obstacles. The occupation of south Korea by the aggressive army of US imperialism and its policy of aggression are the cause of the complex, arduous and protracted nature of both the revolution in south Korea and the Korean revolution as a whole. The US imperialists need south Korea for more than just a market for their surplus goods and a supply base for strategic resources. They also need it as the logistical base for the occupation of the whole of Korea, as a bridgehead for hostile activities against the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China and for aggression on the Asian continent, and, further, as an important strategic point for world domination. That is why the US imperialists have stationed in south Korea more than half of their Pacific ground forces, although they have been driven to the wall and are tottering in all parts of the world today. 277 === [PDF page 286] === Thus, the revolution in south Korea has as the object of its struggle such a powerful enemy as US imperialism, the most ferocious and insidious of all. South Korea is the gathering place and the haunt of domestic reactionaries. In contrast to north Korea, the remnants of Japanese imperialism were not liquidated in south Korea after liberation. With a view to establishing a foothold for their colonial domination the US imperialists actively protected and rallied the remaining forces of Japanese imperialism. The former pro-Japanese forces have now turned into pro-American forces, and these have grown still ranker. Moreover, as the revolutionary struggle was intensified and the counter-revolutionary elements were dealt with in north Korea, some of the landlords, comprador capitalists, pro-Japanese lackeys, traitors to the nation, wicked bureaucrats and fascist elements fled to south Korea and joined the reactionary forces there. In addition, many of the reactionary forces that had been scattered in foreign lands wormed their way into south Korea. The domestic reactionary forces thus formed the counter-revolutionary forces together with outside forces, and set themselves against the revolutionary forces. “Anti-communist” ideas are also deeply rooted in south Korea. The petty bourgeoisie made up the majority of the population and the cultural level of the masses was very low and, in addition, Japanese imperialism had maliciously spread “anti-communist” ideas for 36 years, and after liberation US imperialism and its lackeys further stepped up their “anti-communist” propaganda. During the Fatherland Liberation War the People’s Army advanced and ideologically enlightened the people in the liberated areas to a certain extent, but their influence was not great because they were there for only a short period of time. As a result, a considerable proportion of the people in south Korea are still taken in by the enemy’s “anti-communist” propaganda, and this is a big obstacle to the development of the revolution there. 278 === [PDF page 287] === Because of all these circumstances, the revolution in south Korea must naturally be carried out under very difficult conditions and take many twists and turns. Notwithstanding this, the people of south Korea have been waging an unremitting struggle, from liberation to the present time, against the colonial fascist rule of US imperialism and its lackeys and for their right to live, for democracy and the reunification of the country. Immediately after the August 15 liberation the working-class movement surged forward rapidly in south Korea, and under its impact the struggle of the people of all walks of life also gained momentum. Inspired by the successes of the revolution in the northern half, the people in south Korea fought resolutely against the US imperialist policy of colonial enslavement and for the independence and sovereignty of the country and for the introduction of democratic reforms of the kind which had been carried out in the north. The general strike called by the south Korean workers in September 1946 for food, higher wages, an immediate halt to every kind of cruel oppression by the US military government, and the enactment of a democratic labour law, developed into an all-people anti-US resistance struggle in October, involving about 2,300,000 patriotic people. Even after that, the anti-US, save-the-nation struggle of the people in south Korea continued vigorously, including the February 7 struggle in 1948 for national salvation against the entry of the “UN Temporary Commission on Korea” which had been engineered by US imperialism and the struggle against the May 10 separate elections designed to ruin the nation. Action was also taken by the puppet army soldiers. For example, in October 1948 a mutiny broke out at Ryosu in protest against the repression and barbarous slaughter of people by the US imperialists and their lackeys; even the local people joined in, the puppet government offices were destroyed and for a time the city of Ryosu was entirely occupied. These struggles showed that the people in south Korea were 279 === [PDF page 288] === strongly opposed to the US imperialist policy of colonial enslavement and the traitorous acts of the domestic reactionaries and were resolutely demanding freedom and independence for their country and the establishment of a democratic system; they abundantly demonstrated the revolutionary spirit and great strength of the masses of the people. The struggle of the south Korean people, however, experienced a temporary setback because of the setting up of a separate, puppet regime in south Korea in May 1948 and because of the fascist policies pursued thereafter by the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique. The US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique mobilized US army units equipped with the newest weapons to put down the mass movement and perpetrated barbarous acts, arresting, imprisoning and murdering patriotic people at will. The US imperialists also manoeuvred craftily to split and break up the revolutionary forces from within by using the factionalists and spies who had infiltrated the leadership of the Workers’ Party of South Korea at the time. As a result, the Party organizations were totally destroyed and the revolutionary forces were then dispersed in south Korea. The struggle of the south Korean people gradually embarked upon the road of a new advance in the postwar years. After the war, inspired by the successes in socialist construction in the north, the people in south Korea kept up a staunch struggle for democratic liberties and rights against US imperialism and its stooges. The massive Popular Uprising in April 1960, in which the student youth of south Korea played the central role, overthrew the puppet government of Syngman Rhee, an old minion of US imperialism. This was an initial victory in the south Korean people’s struggle, and it dealt a heavy blow to the colonial rule of US imperialism. The collapse of the puppet Syngman Rhee government signified, above all, the bankruptcy of all its anti-popular policies and its notorious “march north” outcry. In their heroic struggle the people of south Korea demonstrated the 280 === [PDF page 289] === revolutionary mettle of the Korean people, gained valuable experience and lessons and were greatly awakened politically. After the April Popular Uprising, the situation in south Korea rapidly developed in favour of the revolution, and the masses became more courageous to fight against US imperialism and its lackeys, for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country. Thus, the struggle of the people in south Korea, under the banner “Reunification is the only way of life,” began to develop into a struggle to tear down the barrier between the north and the south. The US imperialists, greatly alarmed by these developments in south Korea after the April Popular Uprising, engineered a military coup by aiding and abetting the fascist elements within the military, and stage-managed the insidious plot of replacing the Jang Myon “regime”, the second puppet regime, by the fascist Park Chung Hee military “regime”. This, however, has only resulted in the further aggravation of the crisis in the US imperialist system of colonial rule. Last year witnessed another large-scale anti-imperialist, anti-fascist struggle of the student youth in south Korea. This struggle started in opposition to the renewed aggression by Japanese militarism and for upsetting the “ROK-Japan talks”. Gradually it assumed an anti-“government” character and developed into a struggle to topple the Park Chung Hee “regime”. This patriotic, progressive struggle of the student youth, which lasted more than 70 days from March 24 to June 5, dealt another heavy blow to the Park Chung Hee clique and the US imperialists. While intensifying the policy of fascist repression and terror against the people at home so as to crush the advance of the student youth and the masses of the people today, the US imperialists and the Park Chung Hee “regime” hasten to team up with the Japanese militarists abroad and, further, make frantic efforts to establish an “anti-communist” joint Northeast Asia defence system. With these manoeuvres, however, the US imperialists and the Park Chung Hee “regime” can never cope with the ever-worsening crisis of 281 === [PDF page 290] === their colonial rule, nor can they break the patriotic spirit of the people in south Korea who oppose US imperialist colonial rule and are striving to achieve the freedom and independence of their country. In south Korea today, the antagonism between democracy and reaction, between the patriotic revolutionary forces and the imperialist forces of aggression is becoming more acute, and the imperialist and reactionary forces become more isolated and weakened with each passing day. The national and class awakening of the people is gradually heightened, their anti-US sentiments are rising fast, and the trend towards independent, peaceful reunification is growing among them by the day. In the course of the struggle, the people in south Korea are tempered constantly, accumulate rich political experience and are united in a more organized way. At the present stage the basic policy of the revolution in south Korea is to protect the revolutionary forces from the enemy’s repression and, meanwhile, to accumulate and expand these forces steadily, thereby preparing to cope with the great revolutionary event to come. The most important thing to this end is to build a strong revolutionary party and prepare the main force of the revolution in south Korea. To build the main force of the revolution means uniting around the party the main classes which can be mobilized for the revolution–namely the workers and the peasants. In south Korea at present, the nuclear ranks of revolutionaries armed with Marxism-Leninism are growing, the class awakening of the workers and peasants is raised and the revolutionary force is expanding steadily among them. It is important to form a united front with all classes and levels on the basis of building a revolutionary party and closely uniting the workers, peasants and other sections of the working people. The south Korean revolutionaries direct special attention to combining the struggle of the workers and peasants with that of the young people, students and intellectuals and, at the same time, 282 === [PDF page 291] === endeavour to form a broad anti-US, save-the-nation united front comprising all classes and social levels. The growth and strengthening of the revolutionary forces and the formation and consolidation of the anti-US, save-the-nation united front can be realized successfully only when an extensive mass struggle is launched. Our Party actively supports, encourages and inspires all forms of progressive, patriotic mass movement afoot in south Korea. In the final analysis, the revolution in south Korea can triumph only through the growth of the revolutionary forces of the south Korean people and their decisive struggle. Through this fight the people in south Korea will be further awakened and schooled and will eventually grow into an invincible revolutionary force. Thus, when the hour strikes they will assuredly drive out the US imperialists, crush their lackeys, and carry the revolution to victory. The revolution in south Korea, no matter what method is employed, can emerge victorious only when the revolutionary forces are strengthened. Needless to say, once US imperialism is driven out and the revolution triumphs in south Korea, the reunification of our country will be achieved peacefully. It is the duty of our Party to do everything in its power to expedite the growth of the revolutionary forces in the south and assist the south Korean people in their revolutionary struggle. It can be said that the reunification of our country, the nationwide victory of the Korean revolution, depend, after all, on the preparation of three major forces. First, to strengthen our revolutionary base politically, economically and militarily by successfully building socialism in the northern half of our country; Second, to strengthen the revolutionary forces in south Korea by politically awakening and closely uniting the people there; Third, to strengthen the solidarity of the Korean people with the international revolutionary forces. Our Party is fighting unremittingly to strengthen these three 283 === [PDF page 292] === revolutionary forces. It is of great importance for the victory of our revolution that the Korean people strengthen their solidarity with the international revolutionary forces and internationally isolate and weaken the US imperialist aggressors. Our Party is holding fast to the line of uniting firmly with the peoples of the socialist countries and actively supporting, and strengthening our solidarity with, the peoples of the newly independent states who are opposed to imperialist aggression, and the peoples of all countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America who are fighting to throw off the yoke of imperialism. We are endeavouring to strengthen our solidarity with the progressive people of the whole world. In this regard it is very important to strengthen unity with the Asian, African and Latin-American peoples and, in particular, to fight in unity with all the Asian peoples to drive the US imperialists out of Asia. The anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggle of the communists and people of Indonesia is conducive to this common struggle of the Asian peoples. The Korean people attach great value on their ties and solidarity with the communists and people of Indonesia, and actively support their revolutionary struggle. Holding high the banner of revolution, the communists and peoples of our two countries will always fight in close unity against the aggressive forces of US-led imperialism, for national independence, socialism and peace. 284 === [PDF page 293] === ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY IWAMOTO KIYOSHI, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE KYODO PRESS OF JAPAN April 19, 1965 Question: The war in Viet Nam seems to be fraught with danger of developing into a second Korean war and, further, into a third world war. What in your opinion is essential for the settlement of the Viet Nam war at this moment? And how can it be realized? Answer: I share your concern over the Vietnamese situation. The present grave situation in Viet Nam has been created entirely because of US imperialist acts of aggression and war. For years now, the US imperialists have been conducting a criminal war of aggression in South Viet Nam. Having suffered repeated setbacks and been driven into a tight corner by the heroic resistance of the South Vietnamese people, they, in an attempt to find a way out, are attacking the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam and escalating the war, while intensifying the war of aggression in South Viet Nam. In my view, therefore, the solution to the war in Viet Nam lies, primarily, in halting and frustrating the US imperialists’ brigandish acts of aggression. The Central Committee of the South Viet Nam National Front for Liberation and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam have time and again proposed just and reasonable measures to solve the Viet Nam question. 285 === [PDF page 294] === We fully support them. The US imperialists must immediately stop their aggressive war in South Viet Nam and the barbarous bombing and bombardment of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, pull out of South Viet Nam without delay, taking all their military personnel and lethal weapons, and strictly observe the 1954 Geneva Agreements. The South Viet Nam question must be solved by the South Vietnamese people themselves and the question of Viet Nam’s reunification must be settled by the people in the north and south of that country, free from foreign interference. All the peace-loving countries and peoples of the world must unite more closely, strongly condemn the US imperialist manoeuvres of aggression and war, launch a powerful mass movement to shatter them, and must support and encourage the fighting Vietnamese people in every way. The Vietnamese people supported by the people of the whole world for their righteous, heroic battle will finally emerge victorious, while the US imperialists who are hated and denounced by people throughout the world for their criminal aggressions are destined to suffer ultimate defeat. Question: What do you think is most important and necessary at the present moment for the unity of the socialist countries? Answer: The socialist countries are united in one and the same fighting unit for the common goal against the common enemy on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. There are differences of opinion between some socialist countries today, but they are something like a temporary family disagreement. The peoples of the socialist countries will fight together against imperialism and colonialism, for peace, national independence and the victory of socialism and communism, and through this struggle they will become more firmly united. 286 === [PDF page 295] === Question: In Japan, too, deep attention is focussed on the dispatch of troops to Viet Nam by the south Korean authorities. What do you think of this? Answer: As is generally known, south Korea’s puppet troops were sent to South Viet Nam on orders given by US President Johnson himself with a view to expanding the war. The US imperialists have long been trying to attain their aggressive ends through what they call “internationalization” of the aggressive war in South Viet Nam and by pitting Asians against Asians. That the US imperialists dragged the south Korean “National Army” into the aggressive war in South Viet Nam first shows all the more clearly that the Park Chung Hee “government” of south Korea is the arch-puppet of US imperialism. The introduction of the south Korean “National Army” into South Viet Nam by the US imperialists in defiance of worldwide public denunciation also shows that they have come to an impasse where they cannot carry on their aggressive war with the South Viet Nam’s puppet army alone. However, a people’s righteous struggle for freedom and liberation cannot be put down by mercenaries bought with dollars. South Korean youth will never accept their being used as cannon fodder by the US imperialists in the aggressive war against the South Vietnamese people. The US imperialists are bound to taste the bitter consequence which will arise from their introduction of the south Korean “National Army” in South Viet Nam. Question: An agreement has been reached in principle on the pending questions at the “Japan-ROK talks”. What do you think of this from the viewpoint of the future of your country and Japan and of the reunification of north and south Korea? Answer: Our Government’s position with regard to the 287 === [PDF page 296] === “ROK-Japan talks” has already been made clear through repeated statements. The “ROK-Japan talks” were initiated by the US for the purpose of setting up the “Northeast Asia Treaty Organization” and using the Japanese militarist forces as its “shock brigade” in its Asian aggression. For its part, the Japanese government is scheming to make inroads into south Korea and cherishes a foolish desire to realize its old dream of dominating Asia as the price for its active participation in the US plan of aggression. The south Korean “government” is actively going ahead with the “ROK-Japan talks” to prop up the crumbling foundation of its puppet rule and perpetuate the partition of our country even by selling out south Korea to US imperialism and Japanese militarism as a dual colony. Aimed at hampering Korea’s peaceful reunification and achieving the overseas expansion of the militarist forces of Japan, the “ROK-Japan talks” run counter to the fundamental interests of both the Korean and Japanese peoples. The DPRK Government and the Korean people resolutely oppose these plots hatched by the south Korean puppet regime and the Japanese government at the instigation of the US imperialists. As for the outstanding questions under discussion at the “ROK-Japan talks”, no matter what agreements the south Korean puppet authorities and the Japanese government may reach, they are totally null and void. The south Korean puppet regime was set up by the bayonets of US imperialism, and it can never represent the Korean people. The problems which have arisen between Korea and Japan over the past years should be settled on a fair and reasonable basis after the establishment of a unified government of the Korean people representing their general will. As an outburst of their anger the entire people of north and south Korea are now expressing their total opposition to the “ROK-Japan talks”. The south Korean students and youths especially have again 288 === [PDF page 297] === launched powerful anti-Japanese, anti-government demonstrations. The Japanese people are also waging a widespread struggle against the “ROK-Japan talks”. The Korean people express full support to and solidarity with the Japanese people in this just struggle. The criminal “ROK-Japan talks” must be destroyed and the relations between Korea and Japan be normalized strictly in keeping with the interests of the two peoples and on the basis of peace and friendship. Question: What is the economic situation in your country and, incidentally, what specific plans do you have to develop trade between Korea and Japan? Answer: Our national economy is steadily developing at a high rate thanks to the superiority of the socialist system and our people’s hard work. Industrial and agricultural production have rapidly increased and an overall technical revolution and an extensive work of construction are now going on in all sectors of the national economy. We have already laid the solid foundation of an independent national economy, and this has enabled us to develop trade relations with other countries on an extensive scale. Today they are continuously expanding and developing. As for our trade relations with Japan, they depend solely on the Japanese government’s attitude. Trade between the two countries will be promoted if the Japanese government authorities do not raise artificial obstacles to its development and give up their hostile attitude. Question: What do you expect or hope from Japan under the present situation in Asia? Answer: We hope Japan will free herself from bondage to US imperialism and, as a genuine peace-loving country, promote 289 === [PDF page 298] === good-neighbourly relations with the adjacent Asian countries. Question: What, in your opinion, are the necessary conditions for the improvement of political and economic relations between your country and Japan? Answer: The DPRK Government has all along endeavoured to normalize and improve its relations with Japan, its neighbour. The Japanese government, however, has pursued a hostile policy towards the DPRK. In order to improve relations between our two countries it is necessary, first of all, for the Japanese government to discard this policy. For the present, the Japanese government must immediately stop the “ROK-Japan talks” which it is unlawfully holding with the south Korean authorities and abrogate the agreements which have already been initialled. 290 === [PDF page 299] === ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY SAKAI TATSUO AND FUSE MICHIO, CORRESPONDENTS OF THE NIHON KEIZAl SHIMBUN April 19, 1965 Question: The progressive camp in Japan including the Socialist and Communist Parties is opposed to the Japan-south Korea negotiations now under way, saying that they hamper the reunification of north and south Korea. What is your view about the possibility of Korea’s reunification? Answer: The opposition of the progressive camp including the Japan Socialist Party and Communist Party to the “ROK-Japan talks” is fully justified. The “ROK-Japan talks” are aimed at intensifying colonial rule over south Korea, subjugating it to both US and Japanese imperialisms. As official representatives of the Japanese government said repeatedly and openly, the current “ROK-Japan talks” also presuppose direct antagonism to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Therefore, the “ROK-Japan talks” constitute a serious obstacle to Korea’s peaceful reunification. The Japanese government has even reached a secret agreement with the US government on dispatching Japanese armed forces to south Korea to obstruct Korea’s peaceful reunification and save the tottering puppet regime of south Korea. 291 === [PDF page 300] === But, no matter how closely the US imperialists and Japanese militarist forces may be aligned, they will never be able to prevent the collapse of the colonial ruling machinery in south Korea and obstruct the reunification of the Korean nation. The DPRK Government has consistently maintained that the country’s reunification must be achieved peacefully through a free north-south general election on a democratic basis without any foreign interference after the withdrawal of all foreign troops including the US imperialist army of aggression from south Korea; it has made proposals to hold negotiations between north and south Korea for this purpose at any time. This just position of the DPRK Government is strongly supported at home and abroad despite the tenacious opposition on the part of US imperialism and the south Korean authorities. The successes of socialist construction in the northern half of Korea, which are the material guarantee for the country’s peaceful reunification, are increasing all the time. Through their bitter experiences of the last twenty years the south Korean people have come to realize that the only way out of their present miserable plight lies in the peaceful reunification of the country, and have risen in a dynamic anti-US struggle to save the nation. The south Korean people will never stop harrying US imperialism and its stooges, who are bringing them untold sufferings and hindering our country’s reunification. The Korean question will be solved when our country is peacefully reunified by the concerted efforts of the north and south Korean people through the anti-US liberation struggle of the people in south Korea. 292 === [PDF page 301] === ON SOME QUESTIONS ON IMPROVING THE WORK OF STATE AND ECONOMIC ORGANS AT PRESENT Speech Addressed to the Leading Personnel of Party and Government Organs and the Deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly May 25, 1965 Taking advantage of this opportunity provided by this gathering of deputies who have attended the session of the Supreme People’s Assembly and the leading personnel of Party and government bodies I should like today to talk about the shortcomings which have to be put right as soon as possible in the work of state and economic organs, and about the measures for their correction. 1. ON FURTHER RAISING THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ORGANS As everyone knows, the people’s committee is a genuine government organ of the people which is established by the people themselves and represents their will. Therefore, it ought to defend the interests of the broad masses, including workers and farmers, and carry out its functions and role as a people’s government organ fully. 293 === [PDF page 302] === At present, however, local people’s committees do not do this. Their role has been considerably weakened, especially since the establishment of the provincial rural economy committee and the county cooperative farm management committee. At the ri we find that chairmen of cooperative farm management boards confuse the work of those boards and that of ri people’s committees because they are simultaneously chairmen of both and they work mainly as chairmen of cooperative farm management boards, hardly acting as chairmen of ri people’s committees. As a result, the ri people’s committee, the lowest government body, fails to fulfil its function as it should. It is the same in the county. It is true that in the county there is a sharp distinction between the county people’s committee and the county cooperative farm management committee. Notwithstanding this, some officials consider the latter to be a power organ in the rural areas. Hence, the county cooperative farm management committee behaves like a power organ. At the moment the county cooperative farm management committees do not properly report their work to the county people’s assemblies and committees and are not willing to come under their control. This is very wrong. The county cooperative farm management committee is in all respects an enterprise management body which manages cooperative farms; it is by no means a rural power body. In both towns and the rural areas the power organ is the people’s assembly elected by the masses of the people. During its recess the people’s committee exercises the function of a power organ. The power body of the county is the county people’s assembly and during its recess the county people’s committee carries out its functions. In the case of the ri too, the power organ is the ri people’s assembly and during its recess the ri people’s committee performs its functions. At present even the officials of the provincial rural economy committee are reluctant to take orders from the provincial people’s committee. When we established the provincial rural economy committee we 294 === [PDF page 303] === warned that its chairman should not take upon himself the work of the provincial people’s committee, although he might be tempted to do so. Nevertheless, the chairmen of provincial rural economy committees consider themselves to be superior to those of the provincial people’s committees, and they are unwilling to come under control of the power organ. At the moment the provincial rural economy committee behaves as though it were a power body in the countryside. The formation of the provincial rural economy committee does not mean the transfer of the functions of the rural power body to the committee. It is not a power organ, but a body similar to a provincial rural management bureau, for example. In spite of the formation of the provincial rural economy committee, the power organ in the province is always the provincial people’s assembly elected by the people and during its recess the provincial people’s committee acts as the power organ. No other organs can substitute for it in performing this function in the province. The provincial rural economy committee and all other establishments in the province must come under the control of the provincial power organ. Whether it be the chairman of the provincial rural economy committee or of the provincial light industry committee, everyone is in duty bound to report on his work to the provincial people’s assembly and come under the control of the provincial people’s committee. The newly-organized bodies of guidance over the rural economy behave like a power organ in the rural areas, whereas the local government organs fail to fulfil their functions and role properly. Nowadays people’s committees do not effectively supervise and control the financial activities and the implementation of the national economic plan of the institutions and industrial enterprises in their own cities and counties and pay little attention to the living conditions of the people. On a visit to Songnim at the beginning of this year we found that the city people’s committee was failing not only to direct rural work but also to show any concern about the living conditions of the 295 === [PDF page 304] === workers of the Hwanghae Iron Works. What was worse, the committee did not accept the responsibility of supplying vegetables to these workers. These shortcomings are not confined to the Songnim City People’s Committee alone. They are more or less common to all other city or county people’s committees. Provincial people’s committees also fail to discharge their proper function as power organs. They are scarcely concerned about the rural economy in their provinces. Last year officials of North Phyongan Province hampered farming activities by putting aside farm work, being concerned only with preparations for the September 9 holiday. This is mainly because the provincial people’s committee did not play its proper role. If it had taken effective measures in advance, it would not have come about that officials would have neglected farming to devote themselves just to a campaign. Provincial people’s committees neglect their proper guidance of commerce and do not bother to understand how factories and enterprises in their provinces supply non-staple foodstuffs to the workers and other employees. Neither do they exercise efficient financial control. They not only work out local budgets without thorough examination but also supervise and control the execution of these budgets badly. As a result, financial discipline is now in confusion. Because of the lack of strict control on the part of local power organs, such practices as the haphazard spending of construction funds supplied by the state and undertaking unplanned projects still prevail. When they receive construction funds from the state, they should normally bring the matter to the notice of the provincial people’s assemblies or the provincial people’s committees for a full discussion and use the funds according to their decisions. In the capital the state budget is adopted as a law at the Supreme People’s Assembly every year. But how is it possible for the provinces to use the valuable property of the people so casually without decisions at the people’s assemblies? This is quite wrong. 296 === [PDF page 305] === Local people’s committees must improve their functions and role as organs of power decisively and must, in particular, strengthen their legal control. Only when they exercise more intense control can good discipline and order be established in all sectors of the national economy and the work of the state and economic organs be improved. Without strengthening this function of the power organs we cannot put an end to such practices of local authorities as appropriating the state’s construction funds at will by undertaking unnecessary and unplanned projects. If we are to overcome these negative practices, we have to see to it that the local organs list all the money in their budgets and use even small sums under the control of the people. To this end, the local power organs should practise democracy to the full and, at the same time, exercise proper control. In future the duties and role of the people’s committees should be further improved so that planning of the economy, financial activities, production and construction and all other matters in local areas will be carried out under the strict control of the relevant local power organs. In order to improve the work of local people’s committees it is imperative for local Party organizations to improve their position. Party organizations must not in any way take over the work of people’s committees. On all accounts they should direct the guidance of the work of people’s power organs. If local Party organizations do this well, both Party work and people’s committee affairs will go smoothly. Party organizations should strengthen their leadership of local power organs at all levels to get them to fulfil their functions and role properly, while at the same time resolutely combatting all tendencies to weaken the functions and role of people’s committees. Although this will be a different matter in the future when a communist society is completely established, we cannot and must not now weaken the dictatorial function of power organs to the slightest degree. At present undesirable practices still exist in local areas because work is conducted only by means of ideological education, 297 === [PDF page 306] === without strict legal control of power organs. Of course, ideological education is necessary and in future this method will also be applied more actively. However, it alone is not enough to maintain proper state discipline and social order. Along with ideological education, we must strengthen the legal control of power organs. Only when these two are well combined can we successfully carry out all the work. 2. ON SHOWING DEEP CONCERN FOR THE PEOPLE’S LIVING CONDITIONS We have already successfully fulfilled the tasks of the first half of the Seven-Year Plan. During this period we have erected and improved a large number of factories and enterprises and constructed many dwelling houses. The development of light industry, along with heavy industry, resulted in a remarkable increase in the production of fabrics and consumer goods. The problems of clothing and housing for the people have thus been solved to a considerable extent. However, no great change has yet been made in the people’s diet. First of all, the problem of non-staple foodstuffs has not been solved to our satisfaction. During our recent stay in Hamhung we learned that the working people there were not eating a wide variety of subsidiary foods, although they are living in good flats. Lack of variety in non-staple foodstuffs is also to be found in other cities. It is true that it is difficult to supply abundant meat to the people until the problem of keeping grain production in step with the population growth is completely solved. But vegetables, cooking oil and the like can be provided all the time. However, there is not enough of them at the moment. On the problem of the people’s living conditions we have made many speeches and adopted many decisions. We have taken up a 298 === [PDF page 307] === number of the decisions of the Party and the Government and stressed the matter at every opportunity, but the supply of vegetables and edible oil is still not good, which is to the detriment of the people’s dietary well-being, because of the absence of Party spirit, class consciousness and loyalty to the people on the part of senior personnel and their indifference to the people’s living conditions. Let me give some examples. In order to solve the problem of spring vegetables this year, the Party stressed, ever since last autumn, the need to grow a large amount of vegetables. I also set the chairmen of provincial Party committees the tasks of storing abundant supplies of autumn vegetables, building hothouses to cultivate vegetables and explaining how to grow them by using vinyl chloride sheets. But none of them have carried out these tasks correctly. If senior officials had applied themselves with a strong desire to solve the vegetable problem, there would have been no shortage of vegetables in April and May this year. It is not so difficult to increase the production of vegetables. It needs no special techniques, nor does it present any particularly difficult problems. Some officials blame the failure on weather conditions or the shortage of fertilizer, but this is only an excuse. Some time ago I gave on-the-spot guidance to Tokchon County, where I was told that they were unable to grow sufficient vegetables because of a lack of fertilizer. That county has many factories and coal mines as well as a large population, so if it were to collect human feces to make manure, it would have an enormous quantity. But the leading workers there did nothing about this, with the result that they failed to grow enough vegetables. According to what the manager of the Tokchon Automobile Plant said, the plant’s sideline farm produces no more than 2 to 3 tons of vegetables per hectare. It is no exaggeration to say that they reap nothing at all. If officials organize things properly in Tokchon County, such work as collecting human feces can be done without difficulty, and the problem of carrying manure can be easily solved because the county has a big automobile plant. This is not something which only a man with a doctor’s degree can work out. It is 299 === [PDF page 308] === a simple matter which anyone who is concerned about the people’s living conditions can think of. This is also true of the Hwanghae Iron Works. When I visited this works, its senior personnel told me that they supplied several hundred kilogrammes of vegetables to each worker. But it was not true, as I studied the actual situation by sending guidance group members for the purpose. Once the officials of Songnim and the Hwanghae Iron Works are determined to apply themselves to this problem, it will not be difficult to provide the workers of the iron works with plenty of vegetables. In Songnim there are several thousands of housewives who are wasting time at home, and a huge amount of fertilizer can be obtained, if only the slag produced at the Hwanghae Iron Works and human feces are collected. The fields around Songnim are also fertile. Therefore, if idle manpower is turned to good account to make fertilizer and tend vegetable fields, it is possible to yield 70 to 80 tons of vegetables per hectare, or more than 100 tons, if it is well done. Prior to my visit to the Hwanghae Iron Works, I had been to Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang; I was told that the people there had made compost with human feces and rubbish carried from the city and spread it over the vegetable fields, with the result that last year they produced 70 tons of vegetables per hectare and even 100 tons on some farms. If senior personnel show concern about the people’s living conditions and organize work carefully, as those in Mangyongdae District did, the vegetable problem can be solved everywhere. As I said at the meeting of department directors of the Party Central Committee and the plenary meeting of the Pyongyang City Party Committee held some time ago, if spinach is planted in the paddy and non-paddy fields after crops are reaped in autumn, people can eat it until the rice-planting season in the following spring. And if autumn vegetables are stored in abundance and vegetables are produced in hothouses, greens will not run short in winter and spring and ample supplies will be provided for the people all the year round. The problem of cooking oil can also be solved easily. A long time 300 === [PDF page 309] === ago the Party Central Committee discussed on many occasions how we could supply cooking oil regularly to the working people, and took the necessary measures. For the solution of the oil problem we gave all localities assignments to grow rape, hemp, sunflowers and other oil-bearing crops on a large scale. However, they carried out the drive to plant oil-bearing crops in a shock campaign for a while and then gave it up. In these circumstances, where can we get cooking oil? Recently I visited Hungnam, where I noticed that the situation there was no better than that at the Hwanghae Iron Works. So that milk could be supplied to the workers on health-affecting jobs, the state imported a large number of dairy cows for them. But they did not look after them carefully, which meant that they could not breed from them or produce milk regularly. Some time ago I went to Kangwon Province only to find that the living conditions of its people had still not improved. While giving on-the-spot guidance to this province a few years ago, I earnestly told the officials of the provincial Party committee that they ought to make every effort to develop agriculture and thus improve the people’s standard of living and that the state would assist them, because the people of this province, who had suffered a great deal of hardships during the war, were still living in difficult conditions. And yet, this province is failing to carry out this task properly. Our Party has shown great concern for the betterment of the living conditions of the people in Kangwon Province. The Party and the Cabinet set up the central counties in the province, made a considerable investment and took a series of other measures. As a result of the irrigation projects undertaken with large state investments the area of paddy fields has been increased and poorly-irrigated rice paddies are hardly ever seen. In addition, hundreds of lorries and tractors were sent to Kangwon Province. Nevertheless, its grain output is not increasing. To find out the reason for poor farming in this province, I went to cooperative farms on this occasion. During my stay at Phochon Cooperative Farm in Hoeyang County, whose farming was said to be 301 === [PDF page 310] === the worst in the province, I found that the soil was somewhat acidified, but not badly, and that this was not the cause of the poor farming. It was also not because the cooperative farm was supplied with only a small amount of fertilizer. In fact, more fertilizer was specifically given to this farm than to other places because it is in the front area. Moreover, in the rice-planting season armymen went there to give a great deal of assistance. In spite of these favourable conditions, farming was not carried out well. According to my detailed study the main cause of this lay in the fact that many loafers had appeared because senior workers did not conduct political work well amongst the farmers and carry through the socialist principle of distribution. The neglect of ideological education and the incorrect assessment of work-points give rise to the possibility of eating without working, and, therefore, to the presence of loafers. In Kangwon Province no noticeable progress has been made either in agriculture or in the fishing industry. Our Party has given great attention to the development of fisheries in this province. It instituted a fishing management bureau and a fishing cooperative guidance bureau and considerably increased the number of regular staff members in the province. The material and technical foundations of the fishing sector have been firmly consolidated. But its fish production is small. This is because they do not catch fish positively. Migrating fish ought to be caught in large numbers when they swim by, but they do not make any attempt to catch them at the proper season when they are in shoals. The poor catches make it impossible to supply the people in the province with plenty of fish. Fish processing alone shows us how indifferent senior officials are to the people’s living conditions. The number of fish per head of population in our country at present is high even by world standards. However, poor processing rots large quantities of fish and prevents tasty and fresh fish from being supplied to the people in sufficient quantity. All this is because senior officials of the Ministry of Fisheries are not concerned about the living conditions of the people. 302 === [PDF page 311] === Active measures must be taken to process fish. Cold stores and refrigerator ships should be built to develop this. Since we are still short of refrigeration equipment, we cannot industrialize all this work at once. However, we can easily process as much fish as we want by salting them. If we salt the fish properly, we can supply fish to the people throughout the year. The conclusion we have reached after our recent visits to a number of provinces is that though leading personnel say that they are working for the sake of the people, they are still, in fact, showing little concern for the people’s living conditions. Indifference to this matter is an expression of bourgeois ideas, and it has nothing to do with the beliefs of communists. The building of communism is aimed at making the whole people equally prosperous through mass-production. The most important task of communists in power is to stabilize the people’s living conditions and improve them still further. If our senior personnel are to perform this task, they will have to work a great deal more. It is the illusion of a foolish man to expect the people’s standard of living to improve by itself without making any efforts. Of course, it is by no means easy to dress and feed all the people well and make them equally prosperous. Therefore, every leading worker must tax his ingenuity and work hard to better the people’s living conditions. This spring we severely criticized ministerial officials for their indifference to the people’s lives, but it is not they alone who are to blame. Officials of the county Party and people’s committees, the provincial Party and people’s committees as well as all the senior personnel present here are also to blame for it. The leading officials of every unit are accountable for the living conditions of the workers and other people in their charge. Today our country has all the opportunities to raise the people’s standard of living quickly. Everything depends on the ideological viewpoint of senior personnel. If all of them devote all their strength and wisdom to their endeavours in the interests of the working class and the masses, always 303 === [PDF page 312] === remembering that their first and foremost duty is to improve the livelihood of the workers and the people, the problem of improving the people’s living conditions will be successfully solved. 3. ON PREVENTING ACCIDENTS Although I have more than once stressed the need to prevent accidents, various kinds of accidents still happen. We must consider this matter seriously. In a socialist society the most precious thing of all is man. We make the revolution and undertake construction for the sake of the people, and we establish free education and free medical services also for their well-being and prosperous long life. In a socialist society there must not be accidents which inflict damage on human lives. In a capitalist society where man is exploited by man and human life is treated casually, accidents are unavoidable. Capitalists have no interest in the life and death of people. But in our socialist society where people are masters of the country and human lives are regarded as most valuable, accidents of all kinds are not inevitable, and there is no reason why they cannot be prevented. Why, then, do different kinds of accidents still happen? The principal cause lies in the fact that senior personnel are not devoted to the working class and the people. If our officials are to work sincerely for the people, they must first of all hold the people’s lives dear and make every effort to prevent them from suffering misfortune. However, many senior officials are devoid of proper feelings about people and indifferent to the protection of their lives. A study of recent accidents shows that most of them happened because of the irresponsibility of senior personnel and their indifference to human life. Take coal mines, for instance. Accidents 304 === [PDF page 313] === happen there because their senior workers do not introduce strict measures for occupational safety. If the Party committee chairmen, managers, chief engineers and other senior workers at factories and enterprises were to organize timely inspections and personally examine dangerous areas and then take the necessary safety measures in advance, there would be no accidents. But many of them do not do so. The fact that our officials make no effort to prevent accidents and pay little attention to the protection of people’s lives proves in the last analysis that they have no thought of caring about the people and valuing their lives. Another major cause of accidents at work is that there are no rules and order and discipline is weak. Where there is neither order nor discipline, accidents are unavoidable. If correct handover procedures are neglected when the shifts change or if equipment checks are not carried out according to the rules, and if regulations for labour safety are not strictly observed, it is inevitable that defects will develop and accidents will happen in factories and enterprises. The railway accident which occurred last year between Paegam and Hyesan was also due to ineffective testing and repairs and the neglect of train inspection regulations. It happened because they let the train leave the station without having checked and repaired it properly. These practices still prevail because the railway workers have failed to establish rigorous discipline like that found in the army, although they wear uniforms as soldiers do. This is also true of the coal mining sector. In order to enforce discipline in this sector the Party provided colliers with uniforms. But the present state of discipline is not particularly improved except that they now raise their hands in salute. Accidents can happen even in the army where life is strictly disciplined, so how can factories and enterprises expect to have no accidents without establishing rules and order? It is obvious that at factories and enterprises where there are complicated machines and 305 === [PDF page 314] === many people are working together, accidents are unavoidable if the examination and repair of equipment are neglected and occupational safety regulations are not rigidly observed. If accidents are to be prevented, strict rules and order have to be set up and rigid discipline maintained in all sectors. At factories and enterprises work handovers should be made in a responsible manner when shifts are changed, the inspection and repair of equipment must be done thoroughly, and occupational safety regulations must be strictly observed. In order to prevent accidents we must carry out efficient political work so that all people will voluntarily observe the established order and discipline. At the same time, it is necessary to tighten legal control. Of course, to give priority to political work and educate working men properly is important. But that alone cannot completely prevent accidents. To do this, it is imperative to tighten legal control, in addition to having effective political education. One of the important functions of the state is precisely that of legal control. If this control by the state is weakened, society will be plunged into anarchy. A socialist state’s function of legal control should be justly exercised by public security organs and public prosecutors offices. At the moment, however, these organs and offices are not carrying out their duties properly. They neither maintain proper control over violations of legal order nor do they perform security work thoroughly. They do not exercise control over offences against the established legal order and discipline and they neglect the application of legal sanctions against those responsible for serious accidents. It goes without saying that good order is not maintained in all matters because of the lukewarm application of state laws. The public security organizations and public prosecutors offices must improve their role considerably. Accordingly, they must strictly supervise violations of legal order and unfailingly take legal action against those who cause serious accidents. 306 === [PDF page 315] === 4. ON IMPROVING LAND MANAGEMENT How forests, rivers, roads, houses, factories and villages are managed is one of the criteria used to determine the stage of a country’s cultural development. When forests are dense, rivers and roads are well cared for, and factories, villages and houses are neatly built, it can be said that that country’s level of cultural development is high. If we are to make our country civilized and turn it into a model of socialism in all respects, we must not only develop industry and agriculture but also manage land well and look after the economic life of the country with great care. But we do not now look after forests well, maintain rivers properly or keep roads and villages clean. We should remedy these shortcomings as soon as possible and improve land management appreciably. First of all, we must pay great attention to the protection and cultivation of forests. Unless forests are well tended, it will be useless to improve rivers no matter how much we try, and impossible to prevent flood damage. Because of the bad management of forests nowadays rainstorms cause landslides and the beds of rivers become silted up. We have suffered flood damage in the past few years, partly because of an increase in rainfall, but chiefly because of the silting up of the rivers. Now people are banking rivers higher and higher because the riverbed is being raised. If they continue to do this, they will, before long, be living in areas which are lower than the beds of the rivers. You must not continue such unacceptable practices as building up embankments on the one hand and denuding mountains of trees on the other, but must protect forests and plant them thickly. In order to protect forests, the creation of slash-and-burn plots should be strictly controlled. 307 === [PDF page 316] === Slash-and-burn tilling is banned by law. Chairmen of some county cooperative farm management committees in Kangwon Province openly ask us to permit the tilling of fire-fields. They must not do so. This tilling continues in spite of the strict prohibition. So, what will happen to the forests of our country in the future if it is permitted? During my recent train journey to Hamhung I noticed that almost all the mountains in the ravines from Sinsongchon to the foot of Yangdok Pass were deforested. This is why a heavy rainstorm causes landslides, the bed of the Taedong River rises and such islets as Rungna keep increasing in size. In the past the river flowing in front of Mangyongdae was so deep that boats could freely sail over it, but now they can hardly pass because the waterway between the islets has silted up. If we leave this development as it is, both Nampho and Pyongyang will be unable to survive floods. This practice of tilling the slash-and-burn plots can also be found in Jagang Province. When I visited Kanggye last year I told the chairman of the Jagang Provincial Party Committee that it would be better to plant trees on steep slopes in his province so as to provide fruit and protect the mountains, rather than to grow grains which would yield poor harvests. According to the reports made by the Vice-Premiers who toured local areas recently, however, the mountains in Manpho, Wiwon and Chosan areas have been denuded of trees under the pretext that new lands would be reclaimed even on slopes of over 45 degrees. This may eventually cause landslides which will raise the bed of the Amnok River and prevent the power stations on the river from working normally. How dangerous this will be! The Agricultural Commission is also to blame for the continued practice of tilling fire-fields. It does not exercise control over this on the grounds that it increases the area under cultivation. This is really irresponsible and absurd. It is much more beneficial to the state to take good care of forests and protect paddy and other fields well from damage by landslides and floods, than to denude mountains of trees one by one and create slash-and-burn plots. There is no need to give up farming on fire-fields which have 308 === [PDF page 317] === already been created, but you have to stop people doing this any more. Setting fire to mountains should be strictly prohibited so that forests can be preserved. Now that the Ministry of Land Administration fails to take good care of forests and to control their utilization, people in some areas of North Phyongan Province have set fire to mountains and burned all the trees, claiming that this would kill pine caterpillars. How lamentable it is! If killing caterpillars is difficult, it will be enough to cut down the trees eaten by them and use them as timber or firewood. Where is the need to set fire to the mountain to reduce valuable trees to ashes and even destroy all the bushes? We must resolutely oppose such harmful acts. The reckless cutting of trees must be discontinued. Mountains in some regions have become deforested partly because of the damage caused by pine caterpillars, but chiefly because of the poor organization of work on the part of senior economic officials. If we are to produce a lot of leaf tobacco we should supply cooperative farms with the necessary coal for drying it. However, senior workers only stress the mass production of leaf tobacco without organizing the supply of coal with the result that farmers are felling a large number of trees in the mountains to dry tobacco. If we use 6 cubic metres of firewood for drying a ton of leaf tobacco, we will need 300,000 cubic metres of firewood to dry 50,000 tons. It goes without saying that the mountains will become deforested if 300,000 cubic metres of timber are cut there. The Agricultural Commission should not only submit the figures for the production of leaf tobacco to cooperative farms, but also supply the fuel which they need for drying it. In any event, it should take measures–either to supply coal instead of firewood or to allocate coal mines so that cooperative farms can cut and use coal themselves. It is also important to create forests of economic value properly, in order to ensure the preservation of forests. At present mountains are being denuded of trees under the pretext of the creation of forests of economic value. But this must not be 309 === [PDF page 318] === allowed. If you are to establish a wood of Korean pepper bushes, you should make sure that people plant these pepper bushes among mixed shrubs and fell only those trees which are detrimental to their growth. But, because they cut out all growing trees before planting new ones, landslides may be caused when rain falls. Establishing forests of economic value should not be carried out carelessly. We should never indulge in the practice of felling all the existing trees and transplanting nursery-trees, with the excuse that we are creating plantations of economic value. In conjunction with forest preservation we should launch a large-scale afforestation movement. Planting a large number of trees on mountains not only enables us to protect land; it is also very profitable from an economic aspect. If we plant and grow large numbers of trees there, we can use them as timber or as raw materials for different industries. The creation of forests is by no means a simple task, nor is it an undertaking which can be completed within a single generation. Thick forests have been tended and thus preserved by one generation after another for several hundred years. Therefore, we should regard this as a far-reaching project and mount a mass afforestation drive every year. Next, we should dredge and clean rivers properly. Since we neglect river improvement, we now flood fertile fields. If we build embankments and dig waterways efficiently we can prevent flood damage completely. All counties and ri should improve every river in a mass campaign. Roads should be cared for properly. Since the number of lorries and tractors is increasing and the volume of traffic is growing every day, it is very important to keep roads in good repair. We should build up all roads by paving them with concrete or spreading sand after laying stones. The Ministry of Land Administration should improve its role for the efficient management of land. This ministry exists to look after the land, but at present it is not fulfilling its duties properly. 310 === [PDF page 319] === It should, first of all, concentrate on protecting fields from flood damage by preventing hill fires, protecting existing forests, undertaking extensive afforestation and thus creating dense forests. 5. ON MANAGING THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF THE COUNTRY WELL We have built many factories, schools and houses in towns and rural areas. Everything we have constructed is the precious property of the country created by the hard work of our people. However, some of our workers do not take good care of this property nor do they manage the country’s economic life in a responsible and refined way. Modern rural houses built by the state have tiled roofs and are pleasant to look at from the outside, but their interiors are very dirty because they are kept in a slovenly way. People in some houses do not repair the worn-out paper of their floors and windows. Many people use the upper rooms of their houses in villages for storage. The situation in towns where many fine flats have been built is not particularly better. The state provided a large amount of materials and funds for the repair of houses, but they have been used for other purposes, leaving the houses with leaking roofs unrepaired. No matter how many fine houses are built, they will not suffice if they are not cared for. It is like pouring water into a bottomless jar. A long time ago we gave instructions that good bathhouses should be built in villages for the farmers. However, there are few of them in the countryside which are now worthy of use. The so-called bathhouses have many cracks in the ceilings and their windows do not fit, so that people cannot bathe because of the cold. It is already 20 years since our officials began to work as masters of the country. So it is unreasonable to suppose that they do not know how to build good 311 === [PDF page 320] === bathhouses. How can we say that the county or ri Party committee chairman who does not know how to build a proper bathhouse fulfills his duty as the master of his county or ri? Because officials lack the attitude of a master towards the country’s economic life, they manage workers’ hostels, students’ dormitories, hotels and other similar buildings in a slovenly manner. The state built a large international hotel in Wonsan at enormous expense. The building and its surroundings are good. It is furnished with good-quality beds and various other amenities. However, none of the furniture is put in the right place in this excellent hotel. The dining room is dimly lit, curtains are hung badly and there are no pictures on the walls. This is the exact state of a building standing right under the very noses of the chairmen of the provincial Party and people’s committees as well as the city Party and people’s committees. Many ministers and vice-ministers stay at the hotel before returning to the capital, but no one has paid attention to these points and given advice on how they can be corrected. Many foreigners come to Korea to learn from us. How shameful if we cannot even maintain a hotel in good order! When I visited a certain foreign country, I saw that they had built a large hotel, which was run by foreign employees because they did not know how to manage it themselves. Why should a hotel be run with the help of foreigners after it is constructed on one’s land with one’s own money? We, of course, cannot do this. Kangwon Province does not even keep the theatre clean. When I visited Wonsan a few years ago, I instructed them to repair the theatre because it was not clean. However, I went there recently and found it still unrepaired. Men of culture wear tidy clothes but they do not keep their workplaces clean and tidy. This shows that they are, after all, indifferent to the state’s economic life. The Wonsan Railway Factory is kept very clean. It seems to me that it is the best maintained of all the factories in the machine industry. In the factories which are kept clean, we can easily see, without examining details, that good order is maintained and that 312 === [PDF page 321] === production proceeds smoothly. In fact, the Wonsan Railway Factory always fulfils its production plan. In addition we can mention countless instances in which our officials manage the economic life of the country in a slovenly way. Many pine trees have been planted in Pyongyang but they are dying because they are not being watered properly. The chairman of the Pyongyang City People’s Committee says that the trees will revive in three years, but I do not see much chance of it. It would be better to plant slightly fewer trees and to take good care of them rather than to have the trees die through lack of care after they have been transplanted with a large expenditure of gasoline and manpower. A long time ago I suggested the need for a movement to plant fruit trees in the garden of every rural house, but this has not been carried out. Fruit trees in the garden create shade and blossom and bear fruit, which will be very good. If fruit trees had been planted just three years ago, they would be bearing fruit now. The economic life of the country is badly managed, not because our officials lack ability or because suitable conditions do not exist, but because they do not regard it as their own personal affairs. Recently I visited People’s Army units where I saw good bathhouses built by their own efforts and their barracks and mess halls were kept very clean. The mess halls contained few pieces of furniture, but everything was in good order, with pictures of fruits and landscapes on the walls. They were more comfortable than the international hotel in Wonsan. When I said that I felt good to see watermelons in a picture, although I was unable to eat them, the commanders there told me that they would also be able to eat them, thanks to good farming yields this year. Despite their life in the hills, soldiers are managing their economic affairs in such a careful way. Some comrades may probably think that the armymen can do so because they have plenty of time. If they think that, they are mistaken. Soldiers have many responsibilities. They have to undergo training, stand guard and raise crops. The question is not whether they have time or not; it depends on the ideological attitude of senior personnel. 313 === [PDF page 322] === In the People’s Army soldiers manage their economic life well because their commanding officers educate them in an effective way and show deep concern for their lives, in the same way that the commanders during the anti-Japanese armed struggle did. If all the officials work with the attitude of masters like the commanders of the People’s Army, the economic life of the country will be managed much better. Every official should follow the example of the People’s Army in this connection. 6. ON ACTIVELY ENSURING WOMEN’S INVOLVEMENT IN SOCIETY Soon after liberation we promulgated the Law on Sex Equality so as to induce women to play their part in society with the same rights as men. Only when women work in society will they no longer be backward and acquire the ideas of the working class. Encouraging the women, who make up half of the population, to take an active part in social work is also essential to the building of socialism. Some officials, however, still retain a wrong attitude towards women and have obsolete ideas about them. So they neither welcome women’s advancement nor positively create conditions for their being employed. This year I took part in some Party meetings of ministries, including the general membership meeting of the Party organization of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries, in which women severely criticized senior ministry personnel for their failure to provide suitable working conditions for them. They say that nurseries are too cold in winter to dry babies’ napkins because these officials do not try to build suitable nurseries. Therefore, they are obliged to take their babies to the offices so as to be able to do their work. This is not only true of this ministry but also of other ministries. 314 === [PDF page 323] === The Ministry of Labour which is responsible for ensuring the advancement of women is even worse. When the Minister of Labour makes a speech anywhere he calls upon women to join in social work, but he does not endeavour to build nurseries as he should. Even the Minister of Communications says that grown-up women are bound to get married and that marriage makes women backward and useless. By nature, women will marry when they grow old enough for it and give birth to babies while leading a married life. What reason, then, has he for regarding it as a nuisance? Because our senior officials hold such a mistaken view on women and do not provide suitable working conditions, we have a very small number of women cadres at present. What is worse, even the chairmen of Women’s Union organizations are women without husbands and children, instead of being mothers. It goes without saying, therefore, that women cannot be trained to be cadres. Since conditions are not provided for women to continue with their work and study without difficulty in society even after their marriage, no competent cadres nor masters of science nor doctors will emerge from their ranks. If we neither draw women into the construction of socialism on a wide scale, nor involve them actively in socio-political life, they will remain in a backward state and a complete solution to the question of liberating women cannot be expected. We must direct the attention of the whole nation and the whole of society to the creation of various conditions for women’s advancement. We should first of all build nurseries and kindergartens properly. This is essential not only to ensure the advancement of women but also to bring up our new generation well. The aim of our revolutionary struggle is, after all, to enable our children to lead a happy life in prosperity. Therefore, we ought to show deep concern about the raising of children and build creches and kindergartens as a priority. We have long stressed the importance of this. One day soon after the armistice I went to Kaechon, where I found that the manager of a factory had had his office expensively furnished, while leaving the 315 === [PDF page 324] === creche shabby. So I instructed him to exchange his office for the creche. In spite of this, some of our officials are still failing to build creches well, although they have well-furnished offices themselves. They should not work like this. In fact, what is so difficult in building a creche? This is a matter which can be solved with a little attention and effort on the part of officials. We should train a large number of nursery workers. In rural areas old women are appointed as nurses under the pretext of using available labour rationally. But they do not clearly recognize diseases from which children might suffer and they train them in an old-fashioned way. Of course, not all grandmas do so, but I think it necessary to give this matter consideration. We should ensure that the ranks of nurses will be built up with those capable of bringing up children well and educating them correctly. Along with nurseries and kindergartens, we must build many children’s wards. Their existence will enable women to do their jobs at workplaces without worrying, even if their children fall ill. The building of children’s wards was also suggested long ago. I told the Minister of Public Health that these wards should not be built too elaborately and that it would be enough to build them so that people could make fires to warm them, and glaze their windows to let in sufficient sunlight. However, public health workers are not yet trying to solve this problem. Under the present conditions mothers cannot go to work even when their babies are only slightly unwell. Children’s wards are nothing special. It would be good to build houses for the isolation of sick babies. If we are to build children’s wards of this kind, we do not need a large amount of funds and manpower for their construction. With the money required to build two modern rural houses we can construct one children’s ward. Assuming that our country has 4,000 farms, we can build a ward in every ri with the manpower and materials needed for the construction of 8,000 modern houses. Each factory, enterprise and organ can also build children’s wards with a little effort and it would be good for local 316 === [PDF page 325] === industry factories to build them as well. This problem will be solved successfully by their employees if they get down to it. In order to provide the right conditions for women to go into society to work, we must also build many laundries and other service establishments for mending clothes and the like, in addition to nurseries, kindergartens and children’s wards. Furthermore, the light industry sector should develop the foodstuffs industry so as to simplify food problems as much as possible and thus relieve women of the burdens. Because we are still failing to create adequate conditions, it would be advisable to let women leave their workplaces early and allow those who cannot work all day to return home even after working for only half a day. To provide women with proper working conditions, the state should constantly provide adequate investment funds. By doing this we would ensure that our women further improve their social role and contribute to socialist construction. 7. ON ELIMINATING SUBJECTIVISM One of the major reasons why our officials fail to manage the economic life of the country properly and reveal various shortcomings in economic affairs, is the fact that they work in a subjective way. Subjectivism is usually not thought of in isolation from bureaucracy. But it can be said that at present subjectivism is more widespread than bureaucracy in the work of our officials. In a nutshell, subjectivism means a way of thinking not suited to the objective reality and an attitude of work which ignores the reality but deals with affairs according to subjective desire. Therefore, subjectivism is far from being a scientific way of thinking and attitude of work and, at the same time, the two are incompatible. Whoever falls into subjectivism cannot avoid failure. 317 === [PDF page 326] === I will give some examples of subjectivism now becoming apparent amongst our officials and its aftereffects. Nowadays, subjectivism is much in evidence in the work of agricultural officials. We always say that good farming requires that crops are distributed in conformity with features of the local terrain. But some senior agricultural personnel insist upon a uniform distribution of crops, regardless of these features. The area around Thongchon County, Kangwon Province, is a region where the wind from the sea blows a great deal. It is, therefore, imperative to plant in that area crops which can withstand this wind. However, senior personnel, staying in Pyongyang or Wonsan instead of visiting the area, are demanding the cultivation of crops which are unsuitable to the conditions there. Obviously, crops do not grow well in Thongchon County. Poor farming in Ongjin County, South Hwanghae Province, is also due to the subjective enforcement of crop distribution. While talking with a ri Party committee chairman during my visit to Ongjin County last year, I asked him how to raise good crops in his county. He answered that in Ongjin County where the typhoon strikes every year, wheat or barley should be grown as the first crop and then sweet potatoes as the second. He continued that if sweet potatoes are cultivated as the second crop, no damage will be suffered even if a typhoon strikes and that the production of 15 tons per hectare is easily attainable. I was also told that from olden times the people in Kangryong and Ongjin Counties cultivated a large area of sweet potatoes and carried them by boat to towns for sale. And yet, senior officials of South Hwanghae Province enforced the cultivation of maize without investigating these facts. The main reason why farming fails in Kangwon Province is the fact that workers of the Agricultural Commission and the provincial rural economy committee perform their jobs in a subjective manner. Although the state supplied this province with a large number of tractors, they are not being used efficiently. In Kangwon Province 318 === [PDF page 327] === tractors are unable to till rice and dry fields as required because of poor alignment of land and it is also difficult to use tractors for transport because there are many ridges. That is why people use cattle for many purposes, but they cannot plough fields properly because they do this work in spring with the cattle which have become thin after hard work during the winter. This inevitably leads to failures in farming. However, senior officials do not study this situation but sit idle, believing that the grain yield will increase because they have sent many tractors and rice fields have been enlarged. If they had not fallen into subjectivism, they would have transferred some of the tractors supplied to Kangwon Province to other provinces for more effective use and have provided it with more lorries and cattle instead. Lately we made sure that many lorries were supplied to this province to be used for transport and that an additional number of cattle were given and used for ploughing and weeding. Bulldozers were also given to set out fields well so that tractors can work there. In Kangwon Province yields will increase if lands are put into good order, the use of tractors is increased, and all farm work carried out in accordance with existing conditions. During my on-the-spot guidance in Kangwon Province a few years ago, I set the task of planting many trees on the mountains around Songdowon and establishing it well. After that they planted some trees in it and on nearby mountains. To my surprise, I found during my recent tour that these mountains had become bare. I asked officials there why all the mountains had been denuded of trees, and they replied that they had done so with the object of carrying out the decision adopted at the Pukchong meeting. What is the use of stripping the very mountains around Songdowon of trees when Kangwon Province has many bare mountains on which orchards can be established? This is also an aftereffect of officials’ subjective manner of working. The decision of the Pukchong Enlarged Meeting of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee did not recommend the establishment of orchards after stripping the mountains of trees. Moreover, a Cabinet decision clearly points out that fruit trees should 319 === [PDF page 328] === be planted on the hills where there are no trees. With a view to implementing the decision of the Pukchong meeting correctly, officials in the province must calculate the size of land suitable for planting fruit trees and the amount of labour required for the purpose by counties, and fix the acreage of orchards for each county to establish within its own borders and in another county. For instance, let us suppose that Sukchon County has a large labour force but a small area of land suitable for orchards, whereas Phyongwon County has many hills but is short of manpower. We should ensure that the former will create a few hectares of orchards in its own county and several more hectares on the hills designated for it in neighbouring Phyongwon County. However, workers of some provinces forced their counties to establish so many hectares of orchards by rule of thumb, sitting at their desks, without taking into consideration the right soil for planting fruit trees and the necessary manpower. As a result, some counties cut trees on the mountains and turned them into orchards against their will because they were compelled to do so by the province as a Party decision, although they have only a small amount of land suitable for orchards. I am sure that the felling of trees on the mountains near Songdowon in Wonsan was done because the province had dictated the establishment of orchards. Pyongyang also intended to do this. But I saw this in advance and prevented it. There are still trees in the mountains in Pyongyang because the creation of more orchards was banned; otherwise a great number of forests would have disappeared. When senior officials do not inspect and study the facts but work in a subjective way, they will eventually make a muddle of the country’s economic life, no matter how much they try to work well at their own discretion. In some places they started fires on mountains on the pretext of killing pine caterpillars and thus reduced many forests to ashes, and in other places they felled innumerable trees, claiming that they were planting orchards and creating forests of economic value. What a great loss they have cost the economic life of the country! This would be equivalent to the act of a bear in a fairy tale, which is 320 === [PDF page 329] === sympathetic towards his master taking a nap and then kills him by striking him hard on the face to keep flies away. Our officials must correct these subjective errors in their work thoroughly. Subjectivism is much in evidence amongst officials of the educational sector also. Because they have taught only Russian to the students as a foreign language subject since immediately after liberation, our external activities are now meeting with considerable problems. If we are to make contact with a large number of newly independent countries in Asia and Africa which were colonies of Britain or France in the past, the workers of state organs, to say nothing of those in foreign missions, have to know English or French. For this reason, I spoke some time ago about the need to broaden the scope of the teaching of foreign languages and at the same time remarked that not only Russian but English and French should be taught at schools. As I told the Minister of General Education, they should compile textbooks and train teachers in order to teach English and French to the students. But the Ministry of General Education, in a subjective way, thoughtlessly ordered that the teaching of Russian should cease at once and that the teaching of English and French should be started, without making any preparations for this. It is, of course, good to wish to implement the instructions of the Premier. However, if they are to put them into effect correctly, they should go ahead with their work only after calculating different conditions in detail and taking the required measures. Things will not run smoothly when we work haphazardly, like breaking a live tree by force, without considering concrete conditions and possibilities and making adequate preparations. This is also the case with the question of revolutionizing intellectuals. It seems that since the revolutionization of intellectuals was emphasized, some people intend to solve this problem at one attempt. Intellectuals will not by any means be revolutionized just because they are gathered together in one place and struck with one and the same 321 === [PDF page 330] === club. The revolutionization of intellectuals needs strenuous and persevering ideological training and education. All senior personnel must be clearly aware of the harmful nature of the subjectivism which has been revealed in their work and make persistent efforts to eradicate it completely. To begin with, a vigorous battle against subjectivism should be launched amongst all senior personnel including workers of the Party Central Committee, the Cabinet and the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly. In order to eliminate subjectivism it is important to establish the characteristic of thoroughly inspecting and studying the situation as a first step. Before inquiring into existing conditions no one has the right to offer an opinion or to reach a conclusion. No matter what jobs senior officials may do, they must make conclusions and take relevant measures only after correctly inspecting and understanding the actual conditions. In order to eliminate subjectivism, it is essential to observe the principle of democratic centralism strictly. Only when you give full play to democracy in all work can you listen to the opinions of many people and discover proper methods which are in accordance with the facts. You should not create an anarchic state devoid of guidance and control on the grounds that you are promoting democracy in order to hear the opinions of many people. This must be combined with the principle of centralism. The democracy we demand is, in all respects, that which is combined with centralism. We must make a decision only after hearing the opinions of many people and choosing a sound one from amongst them, and then we should give guidance and control so that the decision will be correctly implemented. This is precisely the principle of democratic centralism. From now on all Party and state organs and all units and sectors, irrespective of industries and rural economy, must fight strenuously against subjectivism. All senior officials must try hard to increase their study of Party policies and become workers capable of carrying out Party policies 322 === [PDF page 331] === correctly and in accordance with objective reality with a high sense of responsibility for the revolutionary duties assigned to them by the Party. 8. ON SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTING THE SEVEN-YEAR PLAN Our country’s present external and internal situation demands that we carry out the Seven-Year Plan at all costs. The fulfilment of this plan is essential to consolidate, still further, the country’s economic foundations and raise the people’s standard of living. It cannot yet be said that our people’s lives are prosperous. To improve them we have to fulfil the indices of the Seven-Year Plan and mass-produce industrial goods particularly, including steel, chemical fertilizer and synthetic fibres. Only when steel is produced in large quantities can we manufacture more tractors, lorries and ships and build more fertilizer factories. Besides, an increased supply of tractors, lorries and chemical fertilizer to the farming areas is indispensable to an increase in grain production. And if we build many large trawlers we can catch large quantities of fish at sea. The successful fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan will enable us to import rubber, crude oil and other industrial raw materials which are not available in our country and develop our industry to a higher stage and thus mass-produce various kinds of goods essential for the people’s existence. The building of socialism and the people’s well-being in the northern half of the country are exerting a great revolutionary influence upon the people in the south. Today the people there are launching a vigorous patriotic struggle to smash the “ROK-Japan talks” because they draw strength from the successes achieved in socialist construction by the people in the north. If we fulfil the Seven-Year Plan and consolidate the economic foundations of the 323 === [PDF page 332] === northern half of the country, it will encourage and inspire the south Korean people even more powerfully in their struggle against the US imperialists and their stooges. We should also implement this plan at whatever the cost in order to give assistance to the fraternal Vietnamese people who are bravely fighting against the aggression of US imperialism. As was agreed at the recent session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, we should actively assist the Vietnamese people’s struggle not only mentally but also materially. We have already sent the South Vietnamese people a large quantity of arms on a number of occasions. However, we must not be content with this. In future we must send them a variety of consumer goods and medicines in great quantities and continue the supply of weapons and ammunition. We are also requested by the North Vietnamese people who are now in a difficult position because of the bombing by the US imperialist invaders, to give them various kinds of assistance. We should meet these demands of the fraternal Vietnamese people. Supporting the fighting Vietnamese people is not only our international duty; it is also for the benefit of our own people. Only when the US imperialist aggressors are annihilated and their pride humbled in South Viet Nam will they be driven out of all parts of Asia and the reunification of our country quickly realized. Since the US imperialists and the south Korean puppets are aware of this, they are making desperate efforts to repress the liberation struggle of the South Vietnamese people. The successful fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan is of great significance also in exerting an inspiring influence on the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa. Now they all call our country a “model socialist country”, sending their delegations of all levels to visit us. This year alone many foreign guests have already been here, and in the future also, many will visit us from different countries. Today many newly independent countries of Asia and Africa say that they will build a self-supporting national economy by relying on 324 === [PDF page 333] === their own efforts following our example. This makes our people proud and gives them a feeling of heavy responsibility. We must also carry out the Seven-Year Plan at all costs in order to uphold the noble title of a “model socialist country” given to us by the newly independent countries and continue to set them a good example. We have already made great progress in implementing the Seven-Year Plan. We have successfully carried out the tasks of the first half of the plan period. However, we cannot rest on our laurels in the least. If we are to fulfil the plan by indices in the remaining period, we have to undertake a strenuous struggle. For the successful fulfilment of this plan as set forth by our Party at its Fourth Congress we must continue to maintain the revolutionary momentum in all sectors and at all units. First of all, we must carry out a forceful campaign to exceed the national economic plan for this year. We have now entered a decisive stage in the implementation of the Seven-Year Plan. Whether we fulfil it ahead of schedule or not depends largely on how we carry out this year’s national economic plan. Only when we achieve this economic plan by working hard this year shall we be able to fulfil the plan for next year creditably, and this alone will enable us to accomplish the Seven-Year Plan. This year we must carry out the increased production plan which is aimed at a growth of 25 per cent over last year, to say nothing of the state plan, in terms of total industrial output value. This is, of course, a very difficult task, but we can certainly achieve it if only we redouble our efforts. To fulfil the Seven-Year Plan successfully senior economic workers must accept greater responsibility and give detailed organizational leadership. At present the enthusiasm of the masses is extraordinarily high. However, the organizational guidance of senior officials is not matching it. Some of our senior officials have a bad habit of boiling for a while when something is stressed by the Party and then cooling down. This runs counter to the character of revolutionaries making 325 === [PDF page 334] === continuous advances and uninterrupted changes. They must correct these shortcomings and tenaciously carry out the decision of the Party to the end. For the certain fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan we must also press ahead with the technical revolution in accordance with the policy advanced by the Party at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of its Fourth Central Committee and bring about changes, especially in scientific research. At the same time, we must carry out a mass campaign for economy in all sectors and at all units. I am convinced that you, in eager response to the decision of the plenary meeting, will work hard for its implementation and so win a brilliant victory in carrying out this year’s national economic plan and the Seven-Year Plan. 326 === [PDF page 335] === CONCLUDING SPEECH AT THE 11TH PLENARY MEETING OF THE FOURTH CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORKERS’ PARTY OF KOREA July 1, 1965 Comrades, For three days now we have discussed ways of improving the control of heat and electric power and higher education. Since the report dealt with every problem in detail and the debate was conducted soundly, I should like to speak briefly about some matters. 1. ON IMPROVING THE CONTROL OF HEAT AND ELECTRIC POWER Controlling heat and electric power is a most important undertaking in economic management. Heat and electricity are the main sources of power for modern industry. Without power it is impossible to run industry, transport and all other branches of the national economy. Therefore, it can be said that the primary task of economic management is to improve the control of heat and electric power and satisfy the demand of the 327 === [PDF page 336] === national economy for power. Even so our leading economic officials and enterprise management workers do not pay due attention to this highly important work. The output of coal and electricity in our country is by no means small. We have reached as high a level of output per head of the population as developed industrial countries, but the value of our per-capita industrial output is lower than theirs. This means that our level of controlling heat and electric power is low and that we are wasting large quantities of them. As you know, mining one ton of coal and generating one kWh of electricity is no easy matter. At present, however, our factories and enterprises are using precious coal and electricity randomly, which results in a prodigious waste. As was pointed out in the debate, if it makes proper adjustments to the caustic soda equipment, the Pongung Chemical Factory can save electric power considerably. But it does not do so, thereby consuming electricity in large quantities. The Hwanghae Iron Works can drastically reduce coke consumption, if it raises the temperature of hot blast in the furnace. But it still takes no steps to do this and uses a great deal of coke. Wasting fuel and electric power is not only confined to these two enterprises. This practice can be found in almost all industrial enterprises. It often happens in enterprises at present that fuel is in short supply, the electricity supply is suspended or the voltage is dropped which hampers production. And the population is not provided with sufficient coal. This is not because of a failure in the production of coal and electricity, but solely because of poor management and waste. As the report pointed out, we use large quantities of coal to no purpose every year. The amount of wasted coal is nearly one-third of our coal production. This amount of coal would enable us to run a thermal power plant with a capacity of 1.4-1.5 million kW, with which to generate 7,000-8,000 million kWh of electricity. Moreover, we do not even know approximately how much electric power is wasted. 328 === [PDF page 337] === If we make proper use of the heat and electric power, which are now wasted, we will be able to increase our industrial output by 30-40 per cent with the present power generation. This shows clearly that improvement in heat and power control is highly important and that this is a tremendous reserve for production. It is for this very reason that we discussed this problem again at this plenary meeting, although we stressed the need of saving fuel and electricity at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Party. If it is thought, therefore, that we bring up this matter this time simply because we are short of coal and electricity, you are mistaken. All senior economic officials and enterprise management workers should be clearly aware of the importance of the control of heat and electric power. They must also understand that the shortage of coal and electricity is not caused by their being produced in small quantities but by their unsatisfactory management. Following this plenary meeting all economic cadres and Party members must fully understand the need for heat and electricity management and bring about a radical improvement in this respect. At the first stage, we must repair the equipment for heat and electric power and maintain it in perfect condition to prevent losses. At the next stage, we have to launch a widespread technical innovation movement to lower electricity, fuel and heat consumption as much as possible. We should thus reach the average level of developed socialist countries, although we cannot attain the level of the most developed country at one stroke. For the present, we must maintain boilers and pipes, put coal-houses and coal depots in order and weather-strip houses, in order to eliminate the slightest causes of the loss of fuel and heat. By doing this we will be able to keep an eight-percent reserve, that is, a reserve for one month’s use, with the coal to be saved before the winter approaches. If we secure this reserve in the period from now to November, production will not suffer from a lack of coal during this winter and the first quarter of next year. At the same time, before winter comes, we should remedy all 329 === [PDF page 338] === deficiencies of electrical facilities and systems and put an end to the loss of electricity in transit and its waste, so that we will not have production problems in the coming dry season. Of course, when the generators in new thermal power stations start operating, they will, to a large extent, make good the electricity shortage in the dry season. But their capacities are not so large and, further, the demand for electricity continues to grow, so that we cannot pin too great hopes on these stations. If we rely only on thermal power plants, we may not be able to operate factories, nor pump water nor show films because of abnormal voltages in the dry season. From now on, we should buckle down to put electrical equipment and systems in good order, thus preventing such occurrences once and for all. Improving the control of heat and electric power does not require sophisticated techniques nor is it a particularly difficult task. By heat control we mean stacking coal in a particular place so as to look after it, ensuring a certain degree of pulverization which is needed in burning coal, thoroughly repairing and maintaining boilers and pipes and thus making effective use of fuel and heat. By control of electric power we mean eliminating the loss of electricity in transit and controlling its consumption to prevent wastage caused by unnecessarily large motors. These problems can be easily tackled if senior economic workers increase their sense of responsibility and take some interest in this work. In order to improve the control of heat and electric power it is important to solve difficult technical problems, but more important is to correct the ideological outlook of officials on this matter. They still do not have an attitude befitting masters who try to run the nation’s economy diligently, save national wealth and produce even one more item with less expenditure. Our senior officials grieve if they lose their own pennies but they feel no remorse to see coal blowing away and electric power being wasted, inflicting a loss on precious state property worth tens of thousands of won. We should reform the mistaken ideas of those officials who think 330 === [PDF page 339] === that they can use coal and electric power in a slipshod manner with the excuse that our country is rich in them. In fact, the more coal and electric power, the less we should use them and the greater efforts we must make to reduce the levels of their consumption. Richer countries than ours also consume coal and electricity sparingly; how could we who still do not lead a fairly prosperous life, recklessly waste precious power? We should not only save it, but save more than others. Only when we produce more with less expenditure can we catch up with developed countries at an early date and enrich the people’s living standards. The reason why we exert our efforts and carry on construction is to raise the people’s standard of living and, especially, feed and clothe the rising generation as well as those in other countries. We have done a lot but we still cannot say that we have satisfactorily solved even the problem of clothing students and children. In summer we provide all children with clothes, and they look smart. But in winter they do not, because they have not all got shoes and overcoats to wear. If we manage the economy well to eliminate waste and use everything sparingly, we shall be able to supply children and students with woollen underwear and jackets, to say nothing of overcoats and winter shoes as well. Next, it is necessary for managers to improve their role throughout enterprise management, including the control of power use. The managers of our factories and enterprises and senior economic workers are certainly very poor at management. Many foreign capitalists who have visited our country have, without exception, been impressed that our economy is progressing very quickly and that its future is boundless. But they have not said that we are good at enterprise management. We have to admit that enterprise managers and economic cadres are incapable of enterprise management and there is a great deal of waste. A manager should understand and direct all aspects of enterprise 331 === [PDF page 340] === management such as manpower, heat, electric power, equipment, materials and welfare services. If he is not careful he could become an idler doing nothing, now that Party work within the enterprise is done by the Party chairman; technical guidance by the chief engineer; materials and manpower administration and welfare services, and so on by the deputy managers. A manager, for instance, is like an army commander; a Party chairman is like the political commissary; and a chief engineer is the equivalent of the chief of staff. That is why the manager should oversee the whole enterprise management and always give assignments to the chief engineer and deputy managers and supervise the results of their accomplishment. However, many of the managers do not know what to do, trailing around behind the Party chairman and the chief engineer. This shows that the Taean system has not yet been established thoroughly in enterprise management. Managers should increase their role to accomplish the tasks of improving enterprise management as set out at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Party. Control of heat and electric power must, under all circumstances, be the concern of managers. For them to be responsible does not mean that they themselves are required to check boilers and pipes by tapping them with a small hammer. They must bring home to technicians and employees the importance of heat and electric power control, take any necessary steps and enlist the masses for this work. If managers and other cadres of enterprises take direct charge of the work and mobilize all workers and technicians, a change will certainly take place in this respect. What is important in improving general enterprise management, in addition to the control of heat and electric power, is that we show an example and widely disseminate experience gained in the course of management, and teach the management workers how to run an enterprise. 332 === [PDF page 341] === The People’s Army makes a practice of using a good traditional method in teaching subordinates–model lectures and study groups. It regularly operates a corps commanders’ study group, a divisional commanders’ study group and a regimental commanders’ study group. I have stressed many times that we should follow suit and run study groups for economic management workers, but ministries and economic institutions do little to teach subordinates. Senior officials of ministries and economic bodies do not teach the management workers of enterprises, but only send them one piece of paper after another, such as Cabinet decisions and ministerial orders. Subordinates cannot learn each of these decisions and orders by heart and, if they could, they would not be able to work properly with only these papers to guide them because they cannot detail all possible ways and means of doing things. Shortcomings in economic management are caused not because our officials try to shirk working, but because they lack the knowledge of how to run the economy and do not have a clear understanding of their duties. Some of our officials do not even know whether it is really a loss or not when doing serious harm to the state. Many of them, who are aware of it, work ineffectively because they do not know how to work better. It is foolish, therefore, for us merely to issue directives and then sit back with folded hands and hope that enterprise management will improve. We should not merely send papers to enterprises but systematically teach managers, Party chairmen, chief engineers, deputy managers and workshop heads how to run them. First of all, we should conduct a regular managers’ study group. This group must be operated under the full responsibility of the minister. The minister himself should acquire a profound knowledge of economic management so as to be able to teach his subordinates. At present, our ministers do not teach managers because they are themselves ignorant. If they visit factories and work with managers for several months to teach workers there and learn from them, they can gain experience and set a good example in enterprise management. 333 === [PDF page 342] === This will help them compile effective lecture procedures to lead a managers’ study group. A managers’ study group should be conducted in an organized way, once a month or once in every two months after making full preparations. If it deals with the question of heat control, for instance, managers should first be taken to an enterprise which does not control heat properly, to show them the shortcomings and how to remedy them. Then they should be taken to another enterprise which is good at controlling heat so as to show them in detail how to stack and store coal, how to dispose and feed it to furnaces and boilers, how to repair boilers and how to prevent steam escaping. This will help every manager to have a clear idea of how to control heat. If, by this method, we settle one difficult problem after another in enterprise management, we will be able to raise the managers’ qualifications in this respect in a short time. Besides the managers’ study group, we must also run a study group for factory Party chairmen. This group should be led by department heads of the Party Central Committee. The chief engineers’ study group should also be organized. This can be led by the minister or vice-ministers. The group should deal with different technical matters such as producing designs, checking technical processes, repairing and adding to existing equipment. A study group for deputy managers should also be conducted. At present no one teaches the deputy managers for welfare services how to manage a vegetable field or a stock farm or how to furnish hostels. It is obvious that welfare services cannot be improved when they are only told what to do instead of being taught how to do it. Senior ministry workers should set an example in welfare services and teach deputy managers in detail how to follow it. It would be advisable for the ministry to assume the responsibility of running a study group for workshop heads, as well as those for managers, chief engineers and deputy managers. We discussed the problems of stepping up the technical revolution, of eliminating the overuse of manpower and of thoroughly introducing 334 === [PDF page 343] === the Taean work system at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Party. And at the current plenary meeting we have dealt with the problem of improving the control of heat and electric power. These problems can never be solved just by adopting decisions. Ministers, vice-ministers and leading economic officials must continue to pass on instruction in the running of the economy to the officials of enterprises so that they may successfully fulfil the tasks set forth by the plenary meetings. We have to continue improving the control of heat and electric power, not as a temporary drive, but as a permanent fighting task, and in future, also, we must continue to pay close attention to this matter. The problem of improving the control of heat and electric power can be regarded as a supplement to the task of effectively managing the national economy which was discussed at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Party. You should, therefore, discuss the decision of the current plenary meeting in relation to that of the Tenth Plenary Meeting and should take measures to carry it out. 2. ON IMPROVING HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH WORK One of the most important tasks for higher education and scientific research fields is to revolutionize intellectuals. We have already proposed this task while we were guiding the general membership meeting of the Party organization of the Ministry of Higher Education. However, I should like to re-emphasize this, because it may be misinterpreted and, if it is carried out incorrectly, it will have an undesirable effect, though it is an excellent undertaking in itself. Some of our comrades still do not have a correct understanding of 335 === [PDF page 344] === the question of intellectuals and fail to work well with them, and particularly with the old ones. Now in our country there is little difference between new and old intellectuals. If the southern half of the country is liberated in the future, the question might arise of intellectuals who were educated under the old society, but in the northern half this question has been basically solved through the revolutionary struggle. For 20 years since liberation our old intellectuals have engaged in the revolutionary struggle and faithfully served our Party and people. Our Party consistently maintains the policy of trusting and drawing them into its fold and patiently educating them. Today they are splendidly performing their role in our revolutionary cause, together with a large army of new intellectuals whom we have raised since liberation. At present some comrades consider that only those who engaged in the guerrilla warfare or in the underground activities in the homeland before are revolutionaries and that those who worked after liberation arc not revolutionaries. This is a very narrow-minded view. The revolutionary struggle has been going on for 20 years since liberation. Why should only those who have fought since before liberation be revolutionaries? Of course, there is a difference between the former guerrillas or underground revolutionaries and those who started the struggle only after liberation. This is the difference in the duration of revolutionary struggle. The former have 30-40 years’ history of struggle, while the latter have 20 years. They differ from each other only in the length of struggle, but they are all revolutionaries, without a doubt. Of course, we should respect the former as revolutionary forerunners, as veteran revolutionaries. At the same time, we must regard the latter as revolutionaries and see to it that they are legitimately proud of being so. This year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of our Party. The revolutionary struggle which it has waged for the last 20 years is no less arduous than the guerrilla warfare or the underground activities of the past. 336 === [PDF page 345] === Now, take the struggle to found our Party for example. This was a very arduous one. We established a Marxist-Leninist party through a harsh struggle against the factionalists and Right and “Left” opportunists of all shades. We also smashed the enemy’s subversion and sabotage and set up a people’s power led by the working class. The struggles for agrarian reform, the nationalization of industries, the emancipation of women and other democratic reforms were also hard revolutionary struggles. The Fatherland Liberation War against US imperialism and the Syngman Rheeites was as hard as the anti-Japanese guerrilla struggle. This war was a liberation war in which the entire nation participated. Our intellectuals joined the workers and peasants in the gallant battle, dedicating their lives. Many of our intellectuals went as far south as the Raktong River with information teams. They broke through the enemy’s encirclement and came back into the Party’s embrace, surmounting all manner of hardships and ordeals. Our writers and artistes also rendered splendid service for victory in the war. The writers composed many militant works which helped to rouse the people to patriotism and firmly convinced them of victory; and the performers went to the battlefields under a hail of shells and encouraged the soldiers with their songs and dances. Who can say this was not a revolutionary struggle? The Fatherland Liberation War clearly distinguished friend from foe within our ranks. Those who supported the revolution bravely fought without wavering along the road indicated by the Party, whereas those who opposed the revolution went over to the enemy side. During the retreat, because of a mistake on the part of some of our officials, certain intellectuals with allegedly problematic political backgrounds were left behind, but even they followed the revolutionary ranks. As you see, ours are the revolutionary intellectuals tested and trained in the midst of the severe trials of war. 337 === [PDF page 346] === After the war they devotedly worked to defend the Party and implement its policies. We, all of us, rebuilt our economy on the debris of war and worked hard to build an independent national economy. In response to the Party’s call all of us built our economy and culture, those with physical strength contributing their physical strength and those with talents, their talents. Our intellectuals also took an active part in the struggle to establish Juche against dogmatism and flunkeyism in the realms of ideology and culture. As a matter of fact, in a sense, the ideological revolution is harder than directly fighting the enemy, weapons in hand. Our postwar struggle against factionalism was also a hard one. Internally, the anti-Party, counter-revolutionary factionalists defied our Party with the backing of great-power chauvinists and, externally, the Yankees instigated Syngman Rhee to threaten to “march north” again. In those grim days our intellectuals resolutely fought the factionalists to defend our Party. As you see, our intellectuals have entrusted their destiny to our Party for twenty years and have fought beside the workers and peasants for the triumph of the revolution under the banner of the Party, sharing the sweet and the bitter with them; and they devoted all their wisdom and talents to the construction of a new country. Why, then, are we proposing the task of revolutionizing them today? Not that we do not yet trust them. If any comrades consider that this involves digging into their past records again or examining their class origins, they are grossly mistaken. Of course, among our intellectuals there are some who led rather prosperous lives, and others who had to work at Japanese imperialist institutions against their will or served the capitalists in order to earn their living because they had been deprived of their country and had not had their own government in the past. However, they came over to the side of the people after liberation and have been continuously engaged in revolutionary activity for the benefit of the country and the people. There is a saying that ten years changes the looks of mountains and rivers. And their ideology cannot 338 === [PDF page 347] === but be developed now that they have carried out the revolutionary struggle for 20 long years. Even if some intellectuals committed errors before, we should say that these were written off by their achievements since liberation. Today many old intellectuals are working as ministers and a great many of them are playing a very important role in the economic, scientific, cultural and educational spheres–in all branches of the national economy. Therefore, it is out of the question now to examine their class origins and dig into their past records. We must never distrust them; we must not regard the Party’s task of revolutionizing them as digging into their past records again. What, then, is the revolutionization of intellectuals? It means thoroughly eradicating any residue of old petty-bourgeois ideas still remaining in their minds, equipping them with the revolutionary ideology of the working class–communist ideology–and thereby preparing them more firmly to be true intellectuals of the working class, to be enthusiastic revolutionary fighters who serve the people faithfully. The revolutionization of intellectuals comes to the fore as an inevitable task at the stage of socialist revolution. This is a major component of the struggle for the working-classization and revolutionization of all society. We must re-educate our intellectuals in a communist spirit and thoroughly revolutionize them so that they will improve the part they play in socialist construction and attain a communist society in company with the working class. To build a communist society we must occupy two fortresses. One is the material and technical fortress; capturing this fortress means establishing the unitary communist ownership of the means of production and raising the productive forces to such a high level that each works according to his ability and receives his share according to his needs. To build a communist society we must also capture the ideological fortress. Unless everyone is thoroughly re-educated in communist 339 === [PDF page 348] === ideology, the material and technical fortress of communism cannot be occupied and, accordingly, it is impossible to build a complete communist society. Laying the material and technical foundations of communism is a very difficult task, but remoulding people into a new communist type of man is still more difficult and arduous. To achieve the complete eradication of surviving obsolete ideas of all shades, such as egoism and individualism, which still remain in the minds of the people and to re-educate them into a new communist type of person developed in an all-round way is a hard task requiring protracted and dedicated effort. Old ideas endure in everyone to some degree or another. They still survive, not only in intellectuals, but also in workers and peasants. It is true to say that intellectuals retain more traces of outworn ideas. In addition, they are more likely to be affected by unsound ideologies than anyone else. That is why their revolutionization has been raised today as a matter of urgency. Old intellectuals were educated in the old society and were greatly influenced by bourgeois ideas. Some of them were relatively well-off before, because they owned a few hectares of orchards or land. Of course, they have also been considerably remoulded through the revolutionary struggle with us after liberation, but, as their lives now become more prosperous with the advancement of our society, their old habits might revive and they could be contaminated by obsolete ideas which run counter to communist ideology. This is also due to the fact that they are engaged in mental activities. Since they are exclusively involved with mental work, detached from productive activities, they have less opportunity of training themselves than other working people and lack revolutionary spirit. It is very difficult to control brainwork because in most cases it is conducted individually and the daily result is not apparent. This is one of the major conditions that give rise to liberalism and individualism among intellectuals; from this stems their undesirable tendency to dislike strict discipline and supervision by others. Take scientific 340 === [PDF page 349] === research workers for example. There is no way of knowing exactly how many pages of books they read and how much research work they perform during working hours. Therefore, if intellectuals do not voluntarily observe revolutionary discipline, they may be indolent and slack. At present our scientists claim that they study some subjects day and night, but they have failed to achieve any substantial success, because they are not fully revolutionized and lack the staunch revolutionary desire to carry out their assigned tasks to the end. If, therefore, we are inconstant in our endeavours to revolutionize our intellectuals, they may be attracted by the remnants of all kinds of outdated ideas–egoism, liberalism, fame, careerism and so on–and influenced by dogmatism and revisionism. We know that in the past many intellectuals became degenerated and dropped out of the revolutionary ranks because they lacked ideological tempering. Some people joined us in the work of building the Party immediately after liberation, fought with us against the American imperialists, and in the harsh postwar days they worked with us. However, because they neglected persevering, unceasing ideological training, they gradually became arrogant and eventually went so far as to criticize the Party’s policies. The ex-chief engineer of the General Bureau of Mining Industry was from the working class and was a new intellectual brought up by us, but he could not work at his post because he became ideologically backward. Once he visited the Holtong Mine and behaved haughtily; he perfumed a room which had been made ready by the miners, saying that it smelt bad. He gave a ride to a girl who had nothing to do with his work while asking the manager of the mine to walk to their destination 15 ri away and then scolded him for being late. Many writers and performers have also become indolent and dissolute because of their lack of ideological education. Until quite recently some people received manuscript fees amounting to thousands of won; they deposited the money in banks and held drinking parties almost every day. They did not work and led 341 === [PDF page 350] === immoral, dissipated lives, drinking wine all day long. They were so degenerate as to declare that beef did not taste good because it smelt of silage. As you see, anyone who neglects regular ideological education can only be rotten and then he will eventually have to drop out of the revolutionary ranks. A person who drops out of the revolution halfway is called a fellow traveller. Figuratively speaking, the fellow traveller of the revolution is one who drops out of our ranks at Yangdok or on Masik Pass, instead of going all the way to Wonsan, our destination. If we do not revolutionize our intellectuals and do not unceasingly temper their ideology, they may be fellow travellers who drop out of the path of revolutionary struggle to reach communism. We must intensify communist education among our intellectuals and thoroughly revolutionize them, so that we will not turn them into fellow travellers of the revolution but revolutionaries who will fight with us to the end. The most important method to revolutionize our intellectuals is to strengthen their Party life. It can be said that Party life is a furnace for training the Party spirit of the Party members. Only when they faithfully take part in this life can they correct their shortcomings in good time, both in and outside their work, and constantly improve their Party and class spirit. If anyone deviates from Party life he may become indolent, commit errors and go in the wrong direction ideologically. Intellectuals must participate in Party life more faithfully than anyone else. Otherwise, they cannot eliminate their inherent weak points or eradicate the remnants of old ideas from their minds. In order to lead Party life faithfully you have to increase criticism and self-criticism. Some of our intellectuals still have the tendency to be afraid of being criticized and they dislike criticizing others. When slightly criticized some people tremble for fear that a terrible stigma will attach to them. You need not be so afraid of criticism. Why should we attach any stigma to them today, when we have never done so in the 20 years 342 === [PDF page 351] === since liberation? Criticism and self-criticism is the best weapon to educate Party members and cadres and revolutionize intellectuals. Our intellectuals should know how to criticize themselves, frankly admitting their errors and shortcomings to the Party organizations; they should be bold enough to point out the errors of others and criticize them. Next in importance for the revolutionization of intellectuals is to intensify their education in Marxism-Leninism. They must not only acquire Marxism-Leninism for the sake of scholarship; they must study it also for their ideological training. Only then can the theory of Marxism-Leninism be a guide to action, a weapon in practice. In particular, our intellectuals must firmly arm themselves with our Party’s policy, which is the creative application of Marxism-Leninism to the existing situation in Korea. Without knowing the Party’s policy, they can neither establish Juche in scientific research nor can they rid themselves of dogmatism and flunkeyism; they cannot carry out scientific research in accord with actual needs because without this knowledge, it is impossible to understand the Party’s intentions. Moreover, in the present complex situation, if scientists and our officials are ignorant of the Party’s policy and dance to another’s tune, they could fall in any wind. Only when our intellectuals firmly arm themselves with the Party’s policy and act solely on its instructions will they achieve successes in their scientific research by steadily adhering to the Juche position, and contribute magnificently to the state and the people. Firmly taking hold of the Party’s policy and fighting tenaciously to defend and carry it through to the end is precisely the way for intellectuals to serve the Party and the people, the way to revolutionize themselves. The Party’s policy is not the intention of one or two people; it is not drawn up by any one individual. It reflects the will of the whole Party membership and is decided on by them. They are in duty bound to carry out the Party’s policy unreservedly. In revolutionizing themselves it is also important for intellectuals to keep contact with reality and go among the masses. They must keep 343 === [PDF page 352] === in close touch with the workers and peasants; they must not only pass on knowledge and techniques to them, but learn from them and identify new problems in practical production. Only then can intellectuals temper their ideology and receive help in their own work. The work of revolutionizing intellectuals cannot be carried out by means of a rush campaign lasting a day or two. It can only be done successfully through tireless ideological tempering and education, principled ideological struggle. Party organizations must ensure that the revolutionization of intellectuals is their own work and must steadily conduct organizational and educational work to suit their individual characteristics. Another important thing in higher education and scientific research is to crush flunkeyism and establish Juche thoroughly. As you know, our country is situated between the Soviet Union, China and Japan. These neighbouring countries are all large, with bigger territories and populations than ours. The Soviet Union is a great socialist power, Japan a developed capitalist state, and China a highly promising country, for she covers a large area and has a large population. Unless our country joins advanced nations by quickly developing its science and technology, therefore, flunkeyism towards these neighbouring countries will remain in our people’s minds. In the final analysis, flunkeyism has persisted in our country for a long time because our science and technology failed to develop and we were not rich and strong. During the Koguryo dynasty there was no flunkeyism in our country because it was powerful. However, as our national power gradually declined because of the corrupt rule of the feudal bureaucrats, flunkeyism emerged, and it was especially rampant towards the end of the Ri dynasty. It has thus retarded our country’s development for a long time. From olden times, our country has been known as a golden garden for its beautiful mountains and clear rivers; it has rich natural resources although its area is small. Ours is an industrious people with 344 === [PDF page 353] === refined sentiments, outstanding talent and sturdy will. They have a long history and cultural traditions. Why should such a sensible people as we blindly admire and venerate others? Flunkeyism must be rooted out in our generation. But we cannot completely eliminate it only by opposing it with words. We can eradicate it only when we are equal to advanced nations in all spheres of economy and culture and, especially, when we develop our science and technology to a great extent. We must thoroughly establish Juche in scientific research for the rapid advancement of science and technology. If we devour or uncritically assimilate foreign scientific and technological achievements, they will be of no use to us. We must introduce those things which are needed for our economic construction and cultural development and reject those which do not suit our particular conditions. Our scientists must study subjects which relate to the situation in our country and endeavour to create things which are needed by our people. They must concentrate especially on developing industry by using our natural resources. Even after the worldwide victory of communism, the Koreans will live in Korea. Why should we leave the golden garden of three thousand ri and live in an alien land? We must exploit our inexhaustible natural resources and build a wonderful paradise in this land where our people will live through all generations. There are many people in the world today who are glad to see our country’s development but there are some who do not like it. We should know that the imperialists are scheming tirelessly to blockade our country. In order to counter their blockade policy, therefore, we must continue to adhere to the principle of building our industry, by relying always on our own natural resources. When at least 70 per cent of our requirements of raw materials is met domestically, we shall be able to develop the country’s economy on a secure foundation and support ourselves in the event of an imperialist blockade. If our scientists concentrate on their studies, we can develop our 345 === [PDF page 354] === industry to the fullest extent by using our own raw materials and enjoy reasonable living conditions. The gasification of anthracite and the oxygenation of carbide into which our scientists are now conducting research are of great significance in the development of our chemical industry. Once these methods are perfected and introduced into production we will develop this industry faster, using anthracite and limestone of which there are inexhaustible supplies in our country. Research into the method of continuous steel-making from granulated iron is nearly complete. This is indeed gratifying. Once we complete this and start to apply the results, we shall produce as much steel as we need, using our own fuel. You must carry out more vigorous research into manufacturing various chemical products by processing crude oil. In order to intensify research work, scientists must improve their scientific and theoretical qualifications. Today they are still below international levels and they fail to meet the demands of the rapidly developing situation. Of course, it is true to say that our country’s science and technology have been developing rapidly. The number of scientists and scientific research institutions has greatly increased. Today we have tens of thousands of scientists and more than 140 research institutions. I would say that it is a tremendous success that in the short period since liberation we have trained so many scientists and set up such a great number of research institutions. Some people are worried about the large number of institutions. This is wrong. Right after liberation we did not have a single one, which caused us great anxiety. But today we have so many of them. This is a good thing; there is nothing at all to worry about. An important task before us today is to improve our guidance to the existing scientific research institutions, increase their role and radically raise the qualifications of our scientists. The Party has long intended to establish the habit of studying as a task for the whole Party. However, this is not yet fully established 346 === [PDF page 355] === amongst our scientists. They must study harder than anybody else in order to raise their scientific and theoretical levels. Party organizations must make sure that they institute the habit of studying and that they study science with great seriousness. The Party Central Committee is now investigating ways of making our cadres and scientists study harder. The basic method is to conduct political work satisfactorily so that they will study willingly, and we are also considering the possibility of introducing an examination system. In order to improve the qualities of our scientists, we must provide them with all the necessary conditions for learning and research work. At present our institutes of higher learning and scientific research institutions are equipped with some experimental apparatus and books, but we cannot say that these are sufficient. In order to raise the scientists’ qualifications they must be adequately provided with these amenities. The State Planning Commission knows that more experimental apparatus and books should be supplied but it appears that they have failed to import them because of foreign currency problems. Of course, it is true that we are experiencing a shortage of foreign currency to some extent. However, we must spend some money on equipment and books which are badly needed for research; we will obtain more foreign currency later on. Meanwhile, we must fight the scientists’ mistaken tendency to rely solely on the state. At present they are asking the state for things which they can make themselves and do not try to make effective use of the research equipment and materials and experimental apparatus which we already have. They must show the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and always try to solve for themselves problems which can be solved. The People’s Army and the public security organs have large quantities of equipment and materials which can be used for scientific research. They are not top-secret; there is no reason to hide them. They 347 === [PDF page 356] === must be shown and used by both the army and the researchers. I have stressed the importance of higher education on many occasions, so I shall just deal briefly with the question of textbooks for the students. As you know, the general theories of basic subjects such as chemistry, physics and mathematics are the same as in other countries. I think there will be no problem in writing textbooks on these subjects. However, the textbooks on specialized subjects for senior students must be written so as to suit our country’s particular situation. If students only learn general theories on their specialized subjects, they will not be able to work properly at the places of employment after their graduation. As far as senior students are concerned, therefore, textbooks must be compiled so as to teach them both general theories and a great deal of practical information about our country. For instance, the textbooks for chemistry students should contain detailed information on vinalon and viscose which are very important to our chemical industry. Furthermore, textbooks must be revised constantly in keeping with the changing situation, so that our students can always use textbooks suited to our actual conditions. 348 === [PDF page 357] === ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY GABRIEL MOLINA, DIRECTOR OF THE PRESS DEPARTMENT OF THE HOY, AND OTHER CUBAN JOURNALISTS July 6, 1965 Question: What are the prospect of your country’s reunification and the possibility of accelerating it through correspondence and economic exchange on the basis of the proposal made by you, Comrade Premier, in January this year? Answer: As you well know, our Government has made untiring efforts to reunify the country in accordance with the unanimous desire and will of the entire Korean people. However, Korea’s reunification has not yet been accomplished and the territory and people still remain divided. This is entirely due to the interference in Korea’s internal affairs and the divisive activities of US imperialism which is occupying south Korea by force of arms in the name of the United Nations. Our Government’s position with regard to the question of Korean reunification is clear. We have consistently maintained that Korea’s reunification should be achieved independently and peacefully on democratic principles without any interference from outside forces. Acting on this principle, we have proposed time and again to the south Korean authorities that an all-Korea government be established 349 === [PDF page 358] === with representatives of the people of all walks of life by holding a free, democratic general election throughout north and south Korea after forcing out the aggressive troops of US imperialism. This proposal of our Government for the solution of the question of Korea’s reunification is a most fair and reasonable one acceptable to anyone–one that not only coincides with the national interests of all the Korean people but also fully accords with the interests of peace in the Far East and the rest of the world. However, the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet regime are against this just proposal of ours. Since the US imperialists and the south Korean rulers are against the establishment of a unified Korean government through a free, democratic election, we proposed to establish a Confederation as a transitional step for solving urgent problems of common concern to our nation and advancing step by step towards complete reunification, and to effect at least economic and cultural exchanges and correspondence between north and south Korea, so as to alleviate, at least a little, the misfortunes and sufferings of the nation caused by territorial division. But the south Korean authorities flatly opposed even this proposal. As a result, our country, far from being reunified, is still in an abnormal situation where parents, children, wives, relatives and friends, separated from each other, in the north and in the south, cannot even write to each other. What is more, the Park Chung Hee puppet regime, manipulated by US imperialism, recently concluded the “ROK-Japan talks” and signed a treacherous “treaty” and “agreements” with the Japanese militarists, thus creating a still greater obstacle to national reunification. The “treaty” and “agreements” signed at the “ROK-Japan talks” serve the US imperialists’ aggressive design to intensify their invasion of Asia by establishing the “Northeast Asia Treaty Organization” with the revived forces of Japanese militarism at its core, to obstruct Korea’s reunification and to perpetuate its division. 350 === [PDF page 359] === This is why the whole Korean people are fighting resolutely against these agreements. The main obstacle to Korea’s reunification is the US imperialists’ occupation of south Korea and their policy of interference in the internal affairs of Korea. There are no grounds whatsoever for the US imperialist forces of aggression to remain in south Korea. They must withdraw from south Korea and the Korean question must be solved by the Korean people themselves. In order to force the US imperialist aggressive troops out of south Korea and accelerate Korea’s reunification, it is necessary to fortify our revolutionary base in the northern half of the country politically, economically and militarily by nobly building socialism and to strengthen the revolutionary forces in south Korea by closely rallying the south Korean people around the anti-US united front to save the nation. At the same time, solidarity between the Korean people and the international revolutionary forces must be cemented. The US imperialist army of aggression will be compelled to leave south Korea when our own forces grow strong, the anti-US national-salvation battle is pursued energetically and international support for our people’s struggle increases. When the US imperialist aggressors quit south Korea, the Korean people will reunify their country by their own efforts. The Korean people are a homogeneous nation who have the same language and customs from ancient times and lived in harmony in the same land. The Korean people cannot live divided. The US imperialist aggressors will eventually be driven out of south Korea as well as out of other countries and our people will definitely reunify their country by themselves. This is an inevitable process of the development of history which no force can ever check. The heroic Cuban people have always actively supported and encouraged our people’s struggle for the withdrawal of the US 351 === [PDF page 360] === imperialist aggressive forces from south Korea and for the independent reunification of Korea. This is very valuable to us and a great inspiration to the Korean people. I take this opportunity to express, in the name of our Party’s Central Committee, the Government of our Republic and the entire Korean people, my heartfelt gratitude to the United Party of Socialist Revolution and the Revolutionary Government of Cuba headed by Comrade Fidel Castro and to the heroic Cuban people, for actively supporting and encouraging our just cause at all times. Question: Could you tell us something about the present relations between the DPRK and the Republic of Cuba and about the possibilities of expanding trade and cultural relations between the two countries? Answer: The relations between the DPRK and the Republic of Cuba are excellent now. The relations of friendship and cooperation between our two countries are a new type of state relationship based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and of proletarian internationalism. The Korean and Cuban peoples are comrades-in-arms and intimate brothers who are fighting on the same side of the barricade in the struggle for the revolutionary cause of the international working class and the struggle against US imperialism, the common enemy. Our two peoples, therefore, fully understand each other’s situation and support and sympathize with each other. Standing by the Cuban people from the first day of the victory of the Cuban revolution, the Korean people have positively supported and are supporting their just struggle, resolutely opposing the ceaseless aggressive manoeuvres of US imperialism to strangle the Cuban revolution. Our Party and the Government of our Republic fully support the lines and policies of the United Party of Socialist Revolution and the 352 === [PDF page 361] === Revolutionary Government of Cuba for firmly defending the revolutionary gains and expediting the socialist construction of the country. The Cuban people have always actively supported the Korean people’s struggle for socialist construction and the country’s independent reunification. This mutual support based on proletarian internationalism not only accords with the interests of our two peoples but also fully conforms with the interests of the unity of the socialist camp. The relations of friendship and cooperation between Korea and Cuba are strengthening and developing day by day. With the progress of socialist construction in our two countries, our economic interchange will be conducted more actively and our trade relations will be expanded. We will make every possible effort to expand our trade with Cuba. Cultural exchanges are being extended and developed between our two countries. The culture of each country has its own fine national features and contributes to the treasure-house of world culture. Cultural interchange is not only beneficial in promoting mutual understanding among nations but is of great significance for them in developing their own national cultures by learning from each other. I am firmly confident that the friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries in the political, economic and cultural fields will further expand and develop in the future. Question: What are the DPRK Government’s views on the systematic US imperialist attacks against the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam and on the dispatch of troops by the south Korean authorities to South Viet Nam? Answer: The US imperialists have long waged an undeclared “special war” in South Viet Nam and carried out a savage war of aggression, even using poison gas and other toxic chemical weapons. Now they are gradually spreading the war, frenziedly stepping up 353 === [PDF page 362] === aggression against the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, a socialist country. The war which the US imperialists are waging against the Vietnamese people is an aggressive war, while the war the Vietnamese people are waging against the aggressors is a righteous war and a liberation war. The US imperialist acts of aggression against the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam are a challenge to all the countries of the socialist camp, the national independent states of Asia, Africa and Latin America and to all the progressive people of the world. The US imperialists are sustaining one miserable defeat after another in face of the Vietnamese people’s heroic resistance. They are trying to get out of their predicament in South Viet Nam by reinforcing their armed forces on a large scale and even bringing in the mercenaries of their satellites. On the orders of the US imperialists, the Park Chung Hee clique of south Korea has already sent more than two thousand puppet troops to South Viet Nam, in defiance of the unanimous opposition of the entire Korean people, and it is planning to send tens of thousands more. This is an intolerable treachery and insult to the entire Korean people. The dispatch of troops to South Viet Nam by the Park Chung Hee clique clearly shows that it is an out-and-out puppet of US imperialism and the executor of its aggression in Asia. By joining US imperialism in its criminal aggressive war against Viet Nam, the Park Chung Hee clique has shown itself to be the enemy not only of the Korean people but also of the peoples of Asia and the rest of the world who are fighting for freedom, independence and progress. Today peace-loving people the world over scathingly denounce the US imperialist aggression in Viet Nam and actively support and encourage the Vietnamese people. The Vietnamese people who have risen up in the righteous battle will vanquish the US imperialist aggressors and win a final victory, 354 === [PDF page 363] === and US imperialism cannot escape a shameful defeat. Question: What would be the position of the DPRK if the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam and the South Viet Nam National Front for Liberation urgently requested more effective aid from the socialist camp? Answer: Today the Vietnamese people’s struggle against the US imperialists is not only a struggle to defend their own independence and sovereignty but also a struggle to safeguard the security of the entire socialist camp and the peace of Asia and the world. Therefore, all the socialist countries, national independent states of Asia, Africa and Latin America and all the progressive people of the world are in duty bound to take decisive action resolutely opposing the US imperialists’ acts of aggression in Viet Nam and give effective assistance to its fighting people, and the Vietnamese people have a legitimate right to receive this assistance. Our people regard it as their internationalist duty to give positive support to the Vietnamese people in their just struggle. We fully support the March 22 statement issued by the Central Committee of the South Viet Nam National Front for Liberation in connection with the furious US imperialist escalation of the aggressive war in Viet Nam and the four-point demand made by the National Assembly and Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam for the settlement of the Viet Nam question. Through its March 26 statement the DPRK Government has already voiced its strong support for the South Vietnamese people’s struggle and expressed its unshakable position, declaring that it would provide every form of material and moral assistance, including arms, to the South Vietnamese people and would send volunteers whenever requested to do so by the South Viet Nam National Front for Liberation. Later, this position was reaffirmed by the resolution of the April 30 Enlarged Session of the Presidium of our Supreme People’s Assembly and that of the May 20 SPA. 355 === [PDF page 364] === At present a nationwide movement to give active assistance to the Vietnamese people is proceeding in our country and many young men have asked to be sent to the Vietnamese front as volunteers. Determined to share life and death with the Vietnamese people in the common struggle against the US imperialist aggressors, we Korean people will stand firmly by the Vietnamese people and continue to give them active support and encouragement in their righteous battle. Question: What, in your opinion, will be the international impact of the US imperialist intervention in Santo Domingo? Answer: Last April the people’s armed uprising broke out in the Dominican Republic to overthrow the military dictatorship and secure the country’s freedom and democracy. This is an eruption of the pent-up wrath of the Dominican people against the military dictatorship; it is the Dominican people’s internal affair and no one has the right to meddle in it. The US imperialists, however, landed their marines in Santo Domingo and even brought in the troops of their satellite countries in the “Organization of American States” and are carrying out the bloody suppression of the patriotic people, flagrantly interfering in the Dominican Republic’s domestic affairs. US imperialist aggression in the Dominican Republic is a challenge to the Latin-American peoples who are fighting for national independence and social progress and a grave menace to peace in Latin America and the rest of the world. Therefore, the Latin-American peoples and the progressive people of the whole world are today conducting an unwavering campaign against the US imperialists’ outrageous intervention in the internal affairs of the Dominican Republic and their aggressive acts. The victory of the Cuban revolution has been a great inspiration in influencing the liberation struggles of the Latin-American peoples for independence and progress and has increased their conviction that they can defeat US imperialism and its lackeys. 356 === [PDF page 365] === Today US imperialism’s foothold in Latin America is shaking to its very foundations because of the fierce struggle of the people in this area for freedom and independence. US imperialism has continuously perpetrated naked aggression to stamp out the Cuban people’s revolutionary gains, has set up puppet military fascist regimes in a number of Latin-American countries and has ruthlessly repressed the people’s liberation struggles. No US imperialist schemes can subjugate the Dominican people and other Latin-American peoples who have taken up arms in their righteous cause. The more US imperialism intensifies its aggression and suppression, the more the antagonism of the Dominican people and all the other Latin-American peoples will increase and the more thoroughly it will be isolated and inevitably suffer an ignominious defeat. We firmly believe that the Dominican people who have risen in a righteous fight will definitely win if they fight bravely to the last against the US imperialist aggressors, resolutely taking up arms against them. Question: Could you tell us something about the Korean people’s exertions for the implementation of the Seven-Year Plan in the northern half of the country? Answer: The Fourth Congress of our Party set out tasks for the implementation of the Seven-Year Plan designed to lay the solid material and technological foundations of socialism and radically improve the people’s material and cultural standards by implementing the technical and cultural revolutions on a full scale. In the first four years of the Seven-Year Plan, we were supposed to re-equip and reinforce the existing heavy industry base and, making effective use of it, concentrate our efforts on developing light industry and agriculture rapidly and radically improving the people’s living conditions; in the remaining period emphasis is to be put on expanding 357 === [PDF page 366] === heavy industry still further, improving its technological equipment and decisively strengthening the material and technological basis of socialism, while further improving the people’s living standards. In the last four years we achieved remarkable success in carrying out the tasks for the first half of the Seven-Year Plan and, this year, we have embarked upon the implementation of the tasks for the second half. In the light of the US imperialist manoeuvres for war and aggression which have been stepped up everywhere in Asia and the rest of the world in the last two or three years, we had to allocate a considerable portion of our funds for the strengthening of our defence capabilities. This has somewhat affected the implementation of the Seven-Year Plan. From now on, however, we shall concentrate our efforts on further perfecting and modernizing key industrial sectors such as iron and steel making, fuel and power, chemical and machine-building and on increasing their production capacities, thereby carrying out the Seven-Year Plan at all costs. We are now endeavouring to build more medium and small-scale local factories, as well as large-scale factories, to lower the costs of products by raising labour productivity and practising greater economy, and to improve their quality. At the same time, we are steadily increasing investment in agriculture for the rapid development of the rural economy. In our country where arable land is limited and arid, it was a very difficult task to achieve self-sufficiency in food. However, thanks to our Party’s increased investments in the postwar period, firm material and technological foundations have been laid for the rural economy. As a result of the great achievements made in irrigation, mechanization, electrification and the intensive use of chemicals in the rural economy, agricultural production has grown sharply and we have attained self-sufficiency in food. At present, our Party is directing its main efforts to the greater use 358 === [PDF page 367] === of chemicals in agriculture. The Tenth Plenary Meeting of our Party’s Fourth Central Committee held towards the end of last year discussed and decided on a number of measures for the fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan. The plenary meeting emphatically called for accomplishing a decisive advance in the fulfilment of the Seven-Year National Economic Plan by more thoroughly carrying out the Party’s mass line in all spheres of the national economy, energetically proceeding with the technical revolution, improving manpower administration and practising greater economy, further improving the enterprise management and tapping more reserves. Our Party is now concentrating all its efforts on the struggle to fulfil the Seven-Year Plan. Just as they achieved good results in fulfilling the tasks for the first half of the Seven-Year Plan, so our people will certainly carry out the plan for the second half with credit. I should like to take this opportunity of offering my warm congratulations to the Cuban people on their great achievements in the socialist construction of the country and, in particular, on their sugar cane record harvest this year. I also hope that the whole Cuban people, rallied all the more firmly around the Revolutionary Government of Cuba headed by Comrade Fidel Castro, will win a splendid victory in their struggle against US imperialism and for socialist construction. 359 === [PDF page 368] === SPEECH AT THE BANQUET TO CELEBRATE THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AUGUST 15 LIBERATION August 15, 1965 Dear comrades, Our honourable foreign guests, We are gloriously celebrating the 20th anniversary of the August 15 liberation with the working people of Kangwon Province in Wonsan, the beautiful seaport on the east coast of our country. On the occasion of the liberation holiday, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the Republic, I extend warm greetings to the entire Korean people and to the working people here in Kangwon Province. Allow me to offer my warm, heartfelt welcome to the friendly delegates of socialist countries and friends from many Asian, African and Latin-American countries who are present. The current visit of many foreign comrades and friends to our country gives great support and encouragement to our people and makes our holiday more enjoyable. This will contribute greatly to consolidating the friendship and solidarity among us even more. Our Party and people have traversed an arduous yet glorious path of struggle for 20 years since liberation. There were many difficulties along the path of our advance and we survived many ordeals. Despite this, under the leadership of the Workers’ Party, our people have triumphed over all difficulties and trials by firmly taking their destiny 360 === [PDF page 369] === in their hands and carrying on an unyielding struggle, and they have really accomplished a great deal of work for the development of the country and the prosperity of the generations to come. Our country has eradicated centuries-old backwardness and poverty as well as unprecedented war damage and has been turned into a socialist industrial-agricultural state with a solid independent national economic foundation. The material and cultural life of the people has been improved and a great change taken place in their spiritual and moral attitudes. Through the twenty years of struggle for the revolution and construction our Party has won the unequalled prestige and trust of the masses and united them strongly around it. We have laid the foundation for making our socialist motherland richer and more powerful and improving our people’s life still more, and have firmly built our revolutionary base which constitutes guarantee for the country’s reunification and the nationwide victory of revolution in the political, economic, cultural and military fields. Our people have good reason to be proud of the successes which they have gained by their heroic struggle and creative labour. As in all other parts of our country, here in Kangwon Province a new life of socialism is flourishing. During the past twenty years the working people of Kangwon Province with all the rest of our people have fought heroically for the freedom and independence of the country and the building of a new society. During the Fatherland Liberation War the population of Kangwon Province, sharing life and death, the sweet and the bitter with the People’s Army, fought valiantly against the aggressors and defended their beloved birthplace to the last and the scenic spots, the pride of our country, from the invading enemy. Many battlefields in the province including Height 1211 and Hill 351 are associated with the immortal exploits of Kangwon provincial people who, in common with the soldiers of the People’s Army, shed blood in defence of the freedom and honour of the country. Under the leadership of the Party the working people in Kangwon Province have achieved great success in all sectors through their 361 === [PDF page 370] === devoted efforts to build their homeland, which they had protected at the cost of their blood, into a prosperous socialist paradise. In the past Kangwon Province was one of the most backward mountain regions in our country. In addition, this province suffered the severest war damage of all areas. But now it is being turned into a good place for the people to live in with its developed economy and culture and its towns and villages being built beautifully and taking on a new appearance. The Kangwon provincial working people showed unusual enthusiasm and creativeness in their work and in various functions to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the liberation. By doing so they once again brilliantly showed their boundless loyalty to the Party, the country and the revolution. At present all our working people are accomplishing a tremendous rise in socialist construction and, under the leadership of the Party, continue to advance vigorously in the spirit of Chollima. On behalf of the Party and the Government, I extend warm congratulations and gratitude to our workers, peasants and the rest of the people, who have displayed unparalleled heroism and patriotic devotion, and so rendered distinguished service in the struggle to defend the freedom and independence of the country and build socialism. I should also like to express the warm encouragement of the people in the northern half to the south Korean people, who are fighting bravely against the US imperialists and their stooges, immensely inspired by the prosperity and development of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the genuine motherland of the Korean people. Allow me also to offer warm fraternal greetings to the Korean compatriots in Japan and all other overseas Koreans who are fighting for democratic national rights and national reunification. I should like to take this opportunity to tender my thanks to the peoples of socialist countries, the Asian, African, and Latin-American peoples and all the progressive people of the world who have supported and encouraged the just struggle of the Korean people. 362 === [PDF page 371] === Comrades, We have won a great victory in the revolutionary struggle and construction work. But we can never rest on our laurels. We must continue with the revolution and press ahead with the construction more vigorously. The socialist construction in our country needs to raise the industrial and agricultural productive forces to a higher level and to develop science, technology and culture extensively. In the northern half of the country we are building socialism but have not yet accomplished the national-liberation revolution on a nationwide scale. The south Korean people are still groaning under the colonial oppression and fascist rule of the US imperialists and their stooges and are struggling for freedom, emancipation and national reunification. Converting south Korea into a US atomic and rocket base, the US imperialists and their stooges are continually perpetrating provocations against our Republic and are hatching a new aggressive plot by bringing Japanese militarist forces into south Korea. In the international arena a fierce battle is in progress between the revolutionary forces and the reactionary forces of imperialism. The Vietnamese people, our brothers and comrades-in-arms, are now fighting heroically against the US imperialist aggressors. Peoples in many countries of the world are fighting against imperialism and colonialism, oppression and exploitation by capital and for national and social emancipation. All our working people should continue to intensify their efforts to expedite the building of socialism in the northern half of the country, render more powerful assistance to the revolutionary struggle of the south Korean people and speed up the reunification of the country and the final victory of the Korean revolution. All sectors and units of the national economy must continuously introduce technical innovations, intensify the struggle for economy and overfulfil the state plan. Meanwhile, in face of the aggressive manoeuvres of the enemy, we must make every effort to consolidate our revolutionary base politically and ideologically and to increase our defence capacities. 363 === [PDF page 372] === The Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people consider it their sacred internationalist duty to defend the socialist camp, strive to safeguard the unity of this camp and the solidarity of the international communist movement and to support and encourage the liberation movement of the peoples of all countries. Our people will continue to give unwavering support to the fighting Vietnamese people. We will give active support and encouragement to the anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggle of the Asian, African and Latin-American peoples and the endeavours of the peoples of all lands for peace and progress. Holding aloft the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, our Party and people will unite with the peoples of the socialist countries, the Asian, African and Latin-American peoples and progressive people the world over and do everything possible to strengthen and develop the common cause against the US-led imperialist aggressive forces and for peace and democracy, national independence and socialism. As the history of the Korean people’s struggle and the history of the world national-liberation movement show the imperialist aggressive forces and the reactionary forces will not escape their doom and the people who have taken up the battle will certainly win the victory. I am convinced that our entire people will win a great new victory by continuing to fight vigorously, rallied still more closely behind the Party. 364 === [PDF page 373] === ON SOME TASKS CONFRONTING THE WOMEN’S UNION ORGANIZATIONS Speech Delivered at the Third Congress of the Korean Democratic Women’s Union September 2, 1965 It was my original intention to remain for the whole of this congress of the Women’s Union, but there are reasons which do not permit my doing so. I ask you to excuse me for this. The tasks confronting the Women’s Union organizations are dealt with in detail in the congratulatory message of the Party Central Committee sent to this congress and in the report to the congress. Today, therefore, I should like to confine myself to stressing a few points for you once again. One of the most important tasks facing the Women’s Union organizations is to look after the country’s economic life well and value and take good care of state property. As you all know, socialist construction in our country is progressing at a very rapid speed and the results of this are increasing steadily. Splendid towns, farm villages and fishing villages are being built as time goes by and large numbers of modern factories, houses and public establishments are being built there. All the things which we have built are the common property of our people and precious assets for the prosperity of the country and the enjoyment of the people. We must continually protect and supervise these valuable national resources so that not only will the people of the present 365 === [PDF page 374] === generation enjoy them but they will also be handed down to posterity. Everybody is required to make a practice of building up the country’s economy meticulously and protecting and treating state property with care, but this practice should be cultivated among the women in particular. Only then will their children be able to emulate them and manage the nation’s economy properly and value public property from generation to generation. However, some of our women still do not take good care of precious state property and do not keep their houses, villages, workplaces and schools perfectly clean and tidy. We can cite an example to show how modern houses in the rural villages are cared for. The modern houses built for the peasants by our Party and Government are better than those lived in by Japanese officials before liberation. In the residential section of the chemical factory in Chongsu, North Phyongan Province, there are still some houses which were built in pre-liberation days. It is said that in those days only Japanese officials such as chief clerks or section chiefs of the factory lived in those houses and Koreans were not allowed even to approach them. But they look quite shabby compared with the modern houses we have built in the country areas. As a matter of fact, in former times it would have been unthinkable for our peasants to live in such fine brick houses as they do now. Rural women do not take good care of such pleasant houses. As they are newly built, the houses look handsome from the outside but their interiors are not neat and tidy. No matter how many good houses are built, they will soon become useless if they are not looked after. It is a great sin to treat the property of the state and people in a slipshod manner. Some women not only fail to care for their houses properly but also do not keep the streets and villages clean where they live and do not look after such public amenities as cinemas and parks. Some time ago, I visited Mangyongdae District to find that things were not carefully tended there either. I have stressed time and again 366 === [PDF page 375] === that Pyongyang must serve as a model for the whole country not only in production and construction but in the cultural revolution. The senior officials of the Pyongyang City People’s Committee and the working people in the city must be more concerned than anyone else about keeping their houses, streets and villages clean and must work hard to become a model for the whole country in this respect. Some of our working people and women are also sadly lacking in enthusiasm for cherishing state property and taking good care of it. All state property, big and small, is the fruit of the labour of the workers and peasants. Even a table, a chair and a piece of glassware are all made by the sweat of a great many workers in the course of many production processes. If our working people had a clear understanding of this and taught their children about it well, precious public property would not be treated as roughly as it is now. As it happens, some of our working people and children, who do not keenly appreciate the value of state property, treat it carelessly, damaging or destroying it and there are many such cases. We must try harder to cultivate the spirit of managing the country’s economy with the utmost care and with the attitude of a master, amongst all the working people, and the members of the Women’s Union and the women, in particular, must take the lead in this. The Women’s Union organizations should intensify the education of their members and all women and inaugurate a mass campaign so that they will take good care of homes and villages, nurseries and kindergartens, schools and workplaces, cinemas and theatres, and cherish and make the best use of public property. Next, I should like to speak briefly about the education of children. I think it a very good thing that this congress has discussed this subject seriously, as the main issue. Of course, we have always paid great attention to child education and have achieved no small success in this work. Foreigners who visit our country admire our achievement also. Many foreigners who came here to attend the recent celebrations of 367 === [PDF page 376] === the 20th anniversary of the August 15 liberation spoke very highly of the fact that in our country industry was developing rapidly, the cooperative farms were very well managed and our working people, the children in particular, had good manners. And some foreign journalists said that although they had toured many countries in the world they had not seen a country like Korea which, as a state freed from the colonial yoke, had not one bare-footed person or beggar in the street nor a juvenile cigarette vendor on the pavement and where all children go to school. Of course, we ought to be proud of this. But we should never rest content with the success we have achieved. We must go on fighting to attain greater success in socialist construction in future and devote greater efforts also to the education of the younger generation. The young people and children are our successors and the heirs to the revolutionary cause. It can be said, therefore, that the education of the younger generation is closely related to the future of the revolution. Only by educating the younger generation properly can we bring them up to be true successors to the revolutionary cause, defend the revolutionary gains we have made through a hard-fought struggle and carry out the revolution to the end. We must not forget for even one moment that whatever good society we have built and whatever splendid successes we have achieved in all spheres of the economy and culture, we cannot continue the revolution and, what is worse, that society will gradually degenerate and so there might even be a danger of losing the revolutionary gains unless we educate the younger generation who will inherit them, in a revolutionary way. If people become idle and debased, socialist society could degenerate and turn back to capitalism. Such a danger is found at all times as long as imperialism still exists on the globe. In order that the generations to come can lead a happy life in a society freed once and for all from exploitation and subjugation, we must from now on educate the children and young people who will inherit our revolutionary cause to become out-and-out communists. The present generation are well aware how precious our system is 368 === [PDF page 377] === because they directly suffered oppression and exploitation by the landlords and capitalists in the past. After liberation they established the people’s power, built the Party and organized the Women’s Union by themselves. Hence, these people are well aware how precious the socialist gains are and fight devotedly to defend them. The rising generation, however, have no clear idea of what the exploitation of landlords and capitalists is like, nor how the happy life they are enjoying today has been brought about and what a bitter life their parents experienced as farm hands in the past. We must tell the rising generation clearly how harshly the imperialists, landlords and capitalists oppressed and exploited their parents and thoroughly educate them to hate the exploiting classes and oppose the old social system. At the same time we must arm our children and youth with socialist patriotism to make them love their country passionately. The Women’s Union members and women have a very heavy responsibility in rearing the new generation, the successors to the revolution, to be reliable reserve builders of communism who have sound ideas and good health and are brave, cheerful and vigorous. As I said at the National Meeting of Mothers, a child’s first teacher is its mother. For this reason the Women’s Union organizations must pay the greatest attention to improving the part played by the Women’s Union members and women in the education of children. The Women’s Union organizations must give active assistance in the education of the younger generation in close contact with schools as well as nurseries and kindergartens. In our country there are large numbers of women teachers at schools of various levels. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the role of the Women’s Union organizations in the education and training of the rising generation through them. Next, members of the Women’s Union and all women must take an active part in labour. If you think that this question is raised simply because our country is short of manpower, you will be mistaken. Needless to say, it does need more workers because of the huge task of socialist economic 369 === [PDF page 378] === construction. It is true that if even one more woman engages in work it will help to ease the manpower shortage by that much. But, the extensive enlistment of women in economic construction takes on rather greater significance in arming them with the ideology of the working class. Only when they participate in public life and take an active part in work can our women acquire the habit of liking it. To love work is one of the fundamental characteristics of the new type of men in socialist and communist society. A communist society is not by any means one where people live in idleness. It is a society where everyone plays a part in production and lives happily together. Therefore, in order to understand the truth of a communist society everybody must cultivate the habit of working with pleasure and, to this end, everybody must join in labour. Particularly, the mothers themselves must participate in labour so that they can teach their sons and daughters, the future builders of communism, the spirit of loving labour also. Moreover, women can keep up with ever-changing conditions only by going out into the world and working. If they are confined indoors they cannot learn anything at all and they will, accordingly, be left even further behind. But if women have jobs, they will begin to lead a collective life and attend various gatherings, and in the course of this they can advance ideologically, further their cultural attainments and foster the noble quality of helping and drawing each other forward. They can, at the very least, read a wall newspaper at their workplace, from which they will learn much. Work is also good for people’s health. Moderate labour makes people strong and live long. In this way labour is needed for the remoulding of people’s ideology and is also beneficial to their health. Women’s Union members and all women should play a greater part in public life and actively participate in the worthwhile labour of socialist construction, thereby adding honour to women in the Chollima age. 370 === [PDF page 379] === Greater public concern must be directed to providing women with suitable conditions so that they can go out into the world and work with peace of mind. More nurseries and kindergartens ought to be erected and the network of such public service establishments as family restaurants, food stores, laundries and dress-repair shops must be expanded as well to lighten the burden of women as much as possible. It is true that it would be difficult for our women to work like men straight away, because they are not yet given suitable conditions for working without anxiety. This is especially so in the case of physically weak women and those housewives who have many children or look after big families. Even so we must not let ourselves sit idle, waiting for the time when all conditions are fulfilled. While effectively preparing these conditions we should take measures to let them take an active part in labour even in the existing situation. People with weak constitutions are also fully capable of doing light work. It would be reasonable to assign to such women jobs suited to their constitutions as far as possible. In addition, women who have many children or large families should be given enough time to attend to their family affairs after returning home. They should, therefore, be allowed to work four or six hours a day instead of eight hours, according to their circumstances. There is nothing difficult in making such arrangements. All that a factory administration is required to do is to organize production in conformity with it and pay wages for the work they do–four hours’ wages if they work for four hours and more if they work longer. In this way we will see to it that there is not even one woman who is idle and that all women go out into the world and work for at least a few hours a day. Lastly, all Women’s Union members and all women should sharpen their revolutionary vigilance and always be ready to defend the socialist gains from enemy encroachment. We liquidated the landlord-capitalists’ regime in the northern half 371 === [PDF page 380] === of the country and have established an advanced socialist system free from exploitation and poverty. This is the great revolutionary gain won by our people. Now we are working hard to make the country richer and stronger and the people’s life better. The enemy, however, does not want to see this happen. The US imperialists stop at nothing to overthrow the socialist system established in the northern half of the country and enslave our people. Not only the US imperialists, but the Japanese imperialists, too, are looking for a chance of aggression, coveting our country’s riches. And the overthrown landlords and capitalists are dreaming of the restoration of the old system. The enemy keeps sending spies and saboteurs and wreckers to the northern half of the country in an attempt to spoil our socialist construction. As we have seen, our socialist construction is proceeding in the middle of an intense class struggle with the enemy. Therefore, women, together with all working people, must maintain a high degree of revolutionary vigilance and prepare themselves fully to smash any enemy encroachment and defend the socialist gains and the people’s happy life. Above all, you must strengthen class education among members of the Women’s Union and all women so as to equip them with hatred for the enemy. In this way everybody has to be prepared ideologically so that they are able to keep careful track of the insidious manoeuvres of the enemy, single out and expose the hidden hostile elements, spies and saboteurs in good time and, in case of emergency, can face the enemy bravely in battle anywhere and at any time. Because we had not completely armed the people with class consciousness straight after liberation, we experienced bitter disappointments during the late Fatherland Liberation War. You all know that retreats are quite common in war. As in a football game in which the players run back and forth, dribbling the ball, in a war the armies may march forward whenever necessary or may make a strategic, temporary withdrawal when the enemy is 372 === [PDF page 381] === numerically superior and conditions are unfavourable for them. We made a temporary retreat for 40 days during the Fatherland Liberation War. But many people who remained at home were cruelly murdered by the enemy, although nothing would have happened to them at that time if, without even fighting the enemy, they had just gone into the mountains, each carrying one mal of rice and an axe. The anti-Japanese guerrillas had fought in the mountains for fifteen years, but Workers’ Party members did not hold out for even one month and ten days and suffered such disasters. This shows most eloquently how they lacked class awareness. If only our women, at least, had been awakened, they would have argued with their husbands and sons and sent them to the mountains. And yet, many people had illusions about the enemy at that time, thinking; “It is unlikely that American rogues will kill anyone,” or “Surely the landlord will not kill me.” How could the landlords possibly not lay hands on us when we had deprived them of their land and how could it be possible for the US imperialists, the heinous foe of communism, to spare Workers’ Party members? Remembering this bitter lesson which we learned during the Fatherland Liberation War, we must further strengthen class education among the women, children and all working people and fully arouse the entire people to class consciousness. At the same time women, just like men, ought to receive military training and work hard to acquire military knowledge. Of course soldiers of the People’s Army are faithfully defending the country, standing firm on our defence line. And yet we cannot relax on this score because we are standing face to face with the US imperialists. We must fortify the whole country and arm everybody in accordance with the line of the Party. If we increase military training among the women and give members of the Women’s Union and all women sound military knowledge, the defence power of our country will greatly increase and the enemy will not dare to provoke us. All able-bodied women, particularly those in the area near the front, in the coastal areas and in factories, should without exception 373 === [PDF page 382] === take part in military drill and acquire military knowledge. Women are quite capable of becoming crack shots if they undergo military training. Comrade Minister of Defence who had recently toured units at the front reported to me that the officers’ families there were very good at shooting and I told him that this was a very good thing. If women have been trained as crack shots in this way, they will be able to fight the enemy and shoot down at least one more invader. As you have heard from her speech, Comrade Ri Yong Jo, with rifle in hand, took part in many battles beside People’s Army men at the time of the Fatherland Liberation War and also fought bravely afterwards to wipe out many armed spies. You should try hard to copy such fine examples of heroism shown by women in the struggle to defend the country during the Fatherland Liberation War and in the subsequent period. The experience gained at the time of that war shows that people can win victory when, irrespective of sex or age, they all come out and put up a brave defence as the Namgang villagers did; but if, on the contrary, they hesitate to fight the enemy and sit idly in their houses they cannot even save their lives. We should sharpen revolutionary vigilance and make all necessary preparations to fight the enemy whenever he attacks us, thereby steadfastly defending the socialist country. I believe that you, rallied closer around the Central Committee of our Party, will keep up the vigorous struggle, and fulfil the honourable tasks set by this Women’s Union congress with credit. 374 === [PDF page 383] === ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY SAAD EL TAYEH, FOREIGN NEWS EDITOR OF AL AKHBAR, KAMAL AMER, FOREIGN NEWS EDITOR OF MEN, AND OTHER JOURNALISTS OF THE UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC September 13, 1965 Question: Your Excellency, what are your views about the question of Korea’s reunification? What do you think is the best way to achieve it? Answer: Our position and specific plans with regard to the question of Korean reunification have been clarified more than once. We hold that the reunification of Korea should be achieved peacefully on independent, democratic principles by the Korean people themselves, free from any foreign interference. This is our consistent position. With this fundamental principle as a basis, we have proposed that this question be solved by way of establishing a unified central government comprising people from all walks of life through a free, democratic north-south general election after the US troops have been forced out of south Korea. This proposal of ours is a most fair and reasonable plan acceptable to all. This accords not only with the will and national interests of the entire Korean people but with the interests of peace in the Far East and 375 === [PDF page 384] === the world. Since the US imperialists and the south Korean rulers are opposed to the establishment of a unified Korean government through a free, democratic election, we proposed the introduction of a Confederation as a transitional measure for settling urgent problems of common concern for the nation, gradually going over to complete reunification. To relieve our nation, if only a little, of the misfortunes and sufferings caused by the territorial partition, we proposed economic and cultural exchanges and the free movement of mail between north and south Korea. We also offered to send materials and provisions needed for the rehabilitation of the ruined economy and the stabilization of the lowered standard of living of the people in south Korea, and proposed to take the south Korean unemployed and provide them with jobs in the northern half of the country and to take over and bring up the orphans roaming about the south Korean streets. However, the US imperialists occupying south Korea and their lackeys are preventing these just proposals from being implemented. The main obstacle to Korea’s reunification is the US military occupation of south Korea. Therefore, reunification presupposes driving the US troops out of south Korea. They have no grounds whatsoever for remaining there. The US imperialists have enforced a fascist rule of terror in south Korea, and brutally trampled down our compatriots and killed them on all sides, and they have brought poverty and starvation to the people there. They are urging their lackeys in south Korea to hamper Korea’s reunification by all means and are using it as a military base for aggression against the northern half of the country, China and the Soviet Union. As soon as the US imperialist army of aggression is driven out, the south Korean people will establish the people’s government which they desire. Then the Korean people will smoothly achieve the 376 === [PDF page 385] === country’s reunification on their own. The US imperialists will not be able to keep the south Korean people fettered to their colonial rule for long or dampen the Korean people’s aspirations for national reunification. The south Korean people have a long, fine tradition of struggle against foreign aggressors. The present fight of the youths, students and other people against the US imperialists and the puppet regime is gaining momentum in south Korea with every passing day. The south Korean people’s enthusiasm for the anti-US struggle, which stems from their own experience, is steadily increasing. The US forces of occupation cannot discourage the south Korean people’s struggle no matter how much oppression they use. They will certainly be thrown out of south Korea, and Korea will definitely be reunified. I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to the Government, the people and the journalists of the United Arab Republic for their constant support and encouragement for the Korean people’s struggle to reunify the country independently without outside interference. Question: Your Excellency, what is your position to the ideological polemics in the socialist camp? Answer: Though differences exist today within the socialist camp, the socialist countries will fight together against imperialism and for the victory of socialism and communism. As for us, we will firmly unite with all the socialist countries and intensify the common struggle against imperialism, for the people’s revolutionary cause. Question: Your Excellency, what do you think are the major problems that have already been solved in Korea, and what are the ones yet to be solved along the path of the socialist revolution? 377 === [PDF page 386] === Answer: Our country was a backward colony before, and after liberation it was almost completely destroyed during the war unleashed by the US imperialists. We suffered many hardships and were sorely tried. Through their united efforts, however, our people have done a great amount of work in the building of a new life. We have transformed the old society and set up a solid socialist system. In the northern half of Korea the source of exploitation and poverty has been done away with and all the working people live harmoniously, helping each other to reach their common goal. By energetically carrying out the work of construction we have laid the foundations of an independent national economy which enables us to live on our own and make the country richer and stronger. We ourselves produce nearly all our machines and equipment and most of the necessary raw materials and other supplies which we use. We meet the people’s basic demands for mass consumption goods with our own products, and we are also self-sufficient in food. We have exerted a great deal of effort to train the nation’s cadres, with the result that we are running the state and building the economy and culture with our own cadres. Our people’s living conditions have also been considerably improved. Though not prosperous, our people have no more anxieties about food, clothing and housing. In our country there are no unemployed and all working people are given free medical care and children and young people receive free education up to the institutes of higher learning. We have laid solid foundations for building socialism more splendidly in the north and produced sufficient assets to rehabilitate south Korea’s economy and stabilize its people’s living conditions after the country is reunified. The greatest task before us is to accomplish our country’s reunification. This is the Korean people’s most burning national aspiration. We are going to steadily consolidate the triumphant socialist system in the north and develop technology so as to bring about industrialization and augment the technical equipment of agriculture. 378 === [PDF page 387] === In this way we shall strengthen the nation’s political and economic might and raise the people’s material and cultural standards to a higher level. The growth of the political and economic might of the northern half of the country is a strong guarantee for the promotion of the country’s reunification. Question: When do you plan to send volunteers to help North Viet Nam? Are you going to send troops only? And what do you think is the influence the Viet Nam problem is having on the whole of Southeast Asia? Answer: The war which the US imperialists are waging against the Vietnamese people is a brigandish aggressive war which wantonly infringes on the sovereignty of Viet Nam in violation of all norms of international law. Today the US imperialist aggressors are not only sending more troops and arms to South Viet Nam and intensifying the bombing of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam but are scheming to spread the war to the vast area of Asia. This is a grave menace to the peace of Asia and the world and a grave challenge to the peoples of the socialist countries and the independent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and to peace-loving people throughout the world. The heroic war of resistance which the Vietnamese people are carrying on against the US imperialist aggressors is not only a struggle to safeguard their country’s freedom and independence but also a righteous war to defend peace in Asia and the world. Therefore, the world’s progressive people are in duty bound and fully entitled to render all necessary assistance to the Vietnamese people who are waging a heroic struggle against US imperialism. The Korean people regard it as their high internationalist duty to extend active support and encouragement to the fraternal Vietnamese people and are giving them all possible assistance. We are ready to send volunteers at any time if need be. As long as US imperialism’s 379 === [PDF page 388] === aggression in Viet Nam continues, the Korean people will increase their assistance to the Vietnamese people. As stated by the South Viet Nam National Front for Liberation and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, the only solution to the Viet Nam question is for US imperialism to stop its war of aggression in Viet Nam immediately, pull out of South Viet Nam without delay, taking its invasion troops and all its weapons, and leave the Viet Nam question to the Vietnamese people themselves to solve. If the US imperialists continue to expand the aggressive war in Viet Nam in defiance of the just demand of the Vietnamese people and the warnings of peoples of all countries, they are bound to suffer a more miserable defeat. Question: Your Excellency, what are the best means of consolidating the friendly relations between our two countries and what do you think of the Western attitude in consolidating Israel as an imperialist bridgehead and an obstacle to Arab progress and unity? Answer: The peoples of our two countries were liberated alike from imperialist oppression, and are fighting on the common front against imperialism. Both our peoples are fighting to create a new life and achieve national prosperity. We should support and encourage each other in our anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggle and cooperate closely with each other in building a new life. Today the relations of friendship and cooperation between our two countries are hardening and developing day by day under the banner of anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism, under the banner of national independence and prosperity. This accords with the interests of our two peoples and contributes to the solidarity of the Asian, African and Latin-American peoples. The Korean people treasure their friendship with the talented and heroic UAR people and actively support all their just struggle. The Korean people fully understand the Arab people’s struggle 380 === [PDF page 389] === against the Israeli expansionists. Serving the US and British imperialists as an advance base of aggression in the Middle East against the Arab people, Israel is hindering Arab progress and threatening the Arab people’s security. Our people strongly condemn the provocations of the US and British imperialists, West German militarists and Israeli expansionists against the Arab people and fully support the UAR people’s struggle against them. Our people also express firm solidarity with the Palestinian and all other Arab peoples in their struggle to liberate Palestine. The US and British imperialists and West German militarists who are carrying out aggressive activities against the UAR and other Arab states, using Israel as a bridgehead, are bound to suffer a shameful defeat. I am firmly convinced that the friendship between our two peoples will be further strengthened and developed in the future in the joint struggle against imperialism and colonialism and for the building of a new life. 381 === [PDF page 390] === TO GIVE FULL PLAY TO THE GREAT VITALITY OF THE UNIFIED AND DETAILED PLANNING OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY Speech Delivered at a General Membership Meeting of the Party Organization of the State Planning Commission September 23, 1965 We have become better acquainted with the work of the State Planning Commission through the data covering the Party cell meetings and the general membership meetings of the branch Party organizations which have already been held and the report and debate at the present general membership meeting of the primary Party organization. On this basis, I should like to talk to you today about some problems concerning the improvement of the work of the State Planning Commission and the planning of the national economy. 1. ON PUTTING UNIFIED AND DETAILED PLANNING INTO PRACTICE We have achieved great successes in the course of carrying out the Seven-Year Plan. Industrial output has continuously risen at a high rate, the material and technical basis of agriculture has been consolidated, and towns and the countryside have been built up better. 382 === [PDF page 391] === In general, the people’s standard of living has also improved. When viewed in retrospect, however, the economic construction we have carried out has many defects, although it has scored great successes. The principal defect in the economic construction of our country today is that, despite our firm economic basis, we have been unable to improve the people’s living standard proportionately. We have gained assets which could certainly make us much better off than now, but we have not yet raised our living standards. In fact, the assets we have accumulated are immense. We have firm bases of heavy and light industry. With regard to the per-capita output of major industrial products such as electricity, coal, steel, cement, chemical fertilizer and fabrics, our country has reached such a high level that it can stand comparison with advanced countries. Our agriculture is also provided with huge irrigation facilities, and it has an impressive number of tractors and other farm machinery. Notwithstanding such economic foundations, the living standard of our people is still low. There were, of course, some unavoidable reasons for this. As we laid the economic foundations on the ruins in a short space of time after the armistice, we would need a definite period of time to perfect them and make full use of them. Moreover, our people were so badly off in the past that their living standard has not reached the level as required by the Party, in spite of tremendous improvement. And it is true that this is affected also by the fact that our country bears greater defence burdens than other countries in order to cope with the aggressive manoeuvres of the US imperialists occupying the southern half of the country. But these conditions cannot be the fundamental cause of our failure to improve the people’s standard of living at the present time. The point is that our officials do not guide and manage the national economy properly. We are not well-off even with all our large assets because we do not know how to make the best use of them, so to speak. There can be no other reason why we cannot raise the people’s standard of living when the lines and policies of the Party are correct, 383 === [PDF page 392] === when the masses are very enthusiastic, and we have considerable assets. The Party has been stressing this point for the last few years now, but this problem has not yet been settled properly because our officials have not tried hard enough. A determined improvement in planning is the most important problem to be solved in guiding and managing the national economy of our country at present. As we always point out, planning is one of the key issues which influence the success of socialist economic construction. In a socialist society where all means of production are owned by the people the economy can never work without a plan. The socialist economy can develop only with a plan. All of the country’s production facilities, raw and other materials operate under a plan, and the whole economic life of the country, including production and consumption, proceeds in a planned way. Therefore, if planning goes wrong, however slightly, a great quantity of equipment and material will be wasted and many people will needlessly experience hard times, resulting in a great loss for the country. But in our country at present, planning lags behind the requirements of the developing situation and has many shortcomings. Poor planning is mainly responsible for the various shortcomings: production not proceeding on a normal basis and the large amount of waste in industry; and the failure to reach the required level in the people’s living standards. The shortcomings in planning are manifested mainly in the failure to maintain a proper balance between the various branches of the national economy. Planned development of the economy means first of all the maintenance of an accurate equilibrium between the different branches of the national economy. To attain this is the basis of planning, and this is the most important task of planning bodies. The most important balance of all is that between accumulation and consumption. Accumulation means to conserve assets for extended reproduction. Therefore, to maintain a balance between accumulation 384 === [PDF page 393] === and consumption means to maintain the equilibrium between extended reproduction and immediate consumption. Maintenance of this balance is one of the most exacting and complicated problems in socialist economic construction. If we put too much emphasis on accumulation because we must consider our future interests, we cannot meet the immediate demands of the people. In that case the people’s enthusiasm for socialist economic construction will diminish. For instance, it is obvious that a farmer will be interested in farming only when he gets enough to eat out of it; otherwise he will have no interest. We should not be biased in favour of accumulation without caring for the life of the people. On the other hand, we must not neglect accumulation, concentrating on consumption alone on the pretext of improving the people’s living standards. If we squander everything we have without storing up assets for extended reproduction, the country’s economy will not develop any further. Therefore, in drawing up a plan, we should coordinate future interests with immediate interests prudently and properly define the correlation between accumulation and consumption, between production of the means of production and production of consumer goods. In addition, a balance must be preserved between industry and agriculture. Within industry also, it has to be maintained between heavy and light industries and between the extractive and the processing industries. Furthermore, it must also be correctly maintained between different branches in heavy and light industry. Planned and balanced development of the national economy is an important law of socialist society. When the requirements of this law in planning are violated, a large quantity of material and labour will be wasted and socialist construction will suffer a severe loss. But you drew up plans so perfunctorily in the past that various inequalities have now come about in the national economy of our country, although they are not so great as in other countries. Above all, the equilibrium between accumulation and consumption has not been well maintained. In a number of cases, the State Planning 385 === [PDF page 394] === Commission has made large investments liberally in new construction projects instead of investing in putting flesh onto the skeleton of heavy industry which has already been built and using it effectively. For this reason it not only delays the commissioning of many construction projects, but also prevents the allocation of the necessary funds for the improvement of the people’s living standards. Next, industry and agriculture are not balanced. Agriculture still lags behind industry though agricultural production has grown rapidly thanks to the great efforts our Party has made so far for its development. This is mainly because you have not given precedence to those branches of industry which are directly related to agricultural production. As we did not give priority to the fertilizer industry, we cannot supply the rural areas with enough fertilizer. Moreover, it is expected that the need for it will become more acute because we have introduced the two-crop system in many areas this year. This difficulty could have been avoided if officials in the planning sector had had a clear knowledge of the area under cultivation in our country, specifically reckoned the amount of fertilizer required and taken measures in advance for giving precedence to fertilizer production. Farming areas are not only supplied with insufficient fertilizer, but there are also too few tractors and other farm machines and agricultural chemicals. If we had continued to develop those industries which are closely related to agricultural production and had made more fertilizers, agricultural chemicals and farm machines available, we could have boosted agricultural production still further and produced more grain on the lands we now have under cultivation. There are disproportions within industry, too. First of all, the extractive and the processing industries are not balanced. In other words, we have failed to give precedence to the extractive industries. Many of the processing plants do not operate at full capacity and their production is not at a normal level because of a shortage of raw and other materials such as coal, ore and lumber because we did not give priority to the extractive industries. Consequently, we cannot 386 === [PDF page 395] === properly operate many factories which we have built with huge expenditure of labour and funds, tightening our belts and saving our pennies. Let me quote some examples. We have built a large kraft paper mill but we cannot operate it properly for want of lumber; and the chemical fibre mills in Chongjin and Sinuiju and the vinyl chloride factory are also unable to work at full capacity for lack of raw materials. The refineries are also unable to normalize their production because their supply of ore is inadequate and the iron works, too, have production difficulties for the same reason. The power industry and other industrial branches are not balanced, either, and within the power industry itself, there is an imbalance between hydroelectric and thermal power. The constant electric power shortage in our country is attributable to our failure to give priority to the power industry over other industries and to eliminate the seasonal fluctuations in power production due to the fact that hydroelectric power production predominates in our country. There are discrepancies also within the processing industries. Production and construction are held up because in producing rolled steel a balance is not maintained between thick and fine wire, and between plate and sheet, and so a large quantity of expensive rolled steel is wasted. At present machine-building plants do not operate at full capacity, because they do not receive regular deliveries of materials. Supply machine-building plants with rolled steel on schedule, and they will raise the output to much more than it is now. In machine-building plants there is also imbalance between the different types of machines. This situation dates back to the time when the factories were under construction. A factory should always be set up according to a standard design to guarantee a balance between different types of equipment. But as we did not set up the machine-building plants in that way, it can be seen that some of their machines now stand idle for they have nothing to do while others are overloaded with work. Indeed, this is a shortcoming arising from our 387 === [PDF page 396] === lack of experience in operating this industry and from its too rapid growth. But we must get rid of the shortcoming promptly now that we are aware of it. In light industry at present, a balance is not struck between the cotton and the woollen textile industries nor between the production of fabrics for summer and winter wear. The paper industry is falling behind in terms of the demands of the developing national economy. In capital construction, too, equilibrium is not maintained between productive and non-productive construction, between construction projects and equipment and material. Nor is the balance ensured between urban and rural manpower, workers and technicians, producers and students. As I discovered some time ago, the number of students has increased excessively over the last few years as compared with that of producers. Various imbalances between the branches of the national economy and within respective branches developed in this way particularly because the planning workers did not study the economic policy of our Party, which accurately reflects the demands of the economic law of socialism, and did not try hard enough to implement it. This is clear when we see that the extractive industry is trailing behind the processing industry. The Party has been stressing for a long time the fact that we should, in every possible way, give precedence to the mining industry over the processing industry and make sure of raw material reserves for at least one or two months or even more. Officials in this field, however, have not given much thought to the geological surveys which the Party stresses as the most important thing in the development of this industry. Only by providing proper material and technical conditions for prospecting, can we give precedence to geological surveys and, especially, conduct detailed prospecting effectively. But this has not been done satisfactorily for the last few years. Even after the consultative meeting of prospecting workers held in May 1961 at Onpho, Juul, the State Planning Commission and the economic organs concerned did not take practical 388 === [PDF page 397] === measures for the execution of the Party’s policy. They have not increased the numbers of prospectors nor provided them with sufficient prospecting equipment including drills. This hampered the development of prospecting and since geological survey was not given priority, the production of coal and ore could not be increased. At present, officials of this branch do not even properly carry out the Party’s directive that tunnelling and mining should be conducted on an equal basis. The important point of this directive is that tunnelling should precede mining. And yet, there is more labour outside the pits than inside, and no emphasis is given to prospecting and tunnelling. Various defects have also been revealed in the planning of capital construction, because you have not carried through the Party’s policy of concentrated construction. It is a consistent policy of our Party to focus on major projects in capital construction. Back in 1959 we criticized the Hwanghae Iron Works for dispersing construction projects excessively, and stressed the need to concentrate construction and we mentioned it on many occasions later. This year, too, we attended a general membership meeting of the Party organization of the construction commission and examined the list of capital construction projects. They were so dispersed that we simply had to specify the objects of construction–only 40 projects should be undertaken this year because of insufficient power. If we undertake a specific number of projects intensively, we can guarantee construction with the rolled steel and cement produced in our country. But now in this branch, so many projects are under way that not one of them has been completed with any marked success. Nor is that all. Among those factories where construction has been virtually finished, there are some which cannot properly produce or work at full capacity because some minor things have still to be completed. Such serious consequences have arisen because our planning officials did not fight to meet the requirements of Party policy and included in the plan all construction projects asked for by the 389 === [PDF page 398] === ministries without specifically calculating our construction capacity. We are unable to attain a higher rate of growth on account of various imbalances in the national economy of our country. This is due not only to the planning officials’ lack of Party spirit, class spirit and popular spirit to meet the Party policy requirement, but is mainly caused by the unsuitability of the planning system which we have had up till now. There is no doubt, of course, that planning in a socialist society is a very difficult and complicated task. As I have mentioned above, in a socialist society all factories and enterprises work according to a plan, all materials and resources of the country are utilized in a planned way and everybody works according to a plan. Therefore, the plan must be drawn up in minute detail. Needless to say, it is not an easy task to specify all the factors of production accurately and draw up a balanced plan. But this does not mean that it is impossible to strike a correct balance in a socialist society. In such a society, it is not only quite possible but even essential to develop the national economy in a balanced way. The question of developing it rapidly by formulating a scientific, realistic and dynamic plan and maintaining a correct balance, depends largely on how the functions and role of the economic bodies, particularly the planning bodies, are broadened and how the work method of the planners is improved. Many shortcomings have been revealed in planning, however, because some of our leading economic officials have, up until now, dogmatically introduced a foreign system of planning and they did not develop it creatively. The system of planning used in our country until recently involved a number of contradictions, which were a greater impediment to maintaining a correct balance and rapidly developing the economy as the economy grew in scope and its structure became more complex. The first contradiction in the previous system of planning is the one between the demands of the officials of the state planning bodies and 390 === [PDF page 399] === those of the producers. In other words, the former demand the greatest output with the lowest expenditure of labour and materials, and the latter try to turn out the least with the greatest supply of both. In the end this finds expression in the contradiction in planning between the bureaucracy and subjectivism of officials of the state planning bodies and the departmentalism and regionalism of the producers. The second contradiction in the former planning is that officials of the state planning bodies know the economic life of the country as a whole and the general prospects for economic development, but do not know the objective condition and the specific reserves for production, whereas the producers are well informed about the specific reality and the production reserves of enterprises, but know little about the economic life of the country as a whole and the future prospects of national economic development in general. If you combine the two correctly in planning, you can draw up a plan which is in the interests of the whole state and the entire people, and which is scientific and dynamic. If, on the contrary, the planners work out a subjective plan or just amalgamate the plans submitted by the producers, that kind of plan will be impracticable, or unambitious and conservative. This issue has not been properly tackled in our country’s planning so far, with the result that all reserves latent in the national economy could not be mobilized and no accurate plan could be formulated. The work of planning the national economy is analogous in theory to the drawing up of an operational plan by a military commander. When he works it out, the military commander first studies his troops closely. That is to say that he studies in depth and analyses in detail whether his men are in good health, whether their morale is high, how high their technical level is, what kinds of arms his unit has and how effective they are, if enough ammunition, fuel, uniforms and provisions can be supplied and similar matters. When he has, in this way, got an understanding of the actual state of things and the combat capabilities of his unit and knows them like the palm of his hand, he is able to make up his mind on how he should fight and what methods he should use. 391 === [PDF page 400] === A national economic plan must also be drawn up in this way. Planners ought to know every detail about production factors such as manpower, equipment and materials. They must know, above all, about the availability of labour which is the most decisive factor of the productive forces, i.e., the state of manpower. They must know how many workers there are, how high their level of skill is, what their health is like and how high the level of their ideological consciousness is, and also whether they have any difficulties. Then, they should be thoroughly familiar with the equipment at the enterprises. An official of the metal planning bureau, for example, must know exactly the condition of equipment at all factories and enterprises of the metal branch, including iron and steel works across the country. For instance, he should know specifically how many electric furnaces and rolling mills the Kangson Steel Plant has, what their capacity is, and whether these facilities are working properly. They should also be familiar with the supply of raw materials and other items. They must know whether the materials necessary for production are available, and if not, what measures are to be taken to obtain them. Only when they are acquainted with all these things are they able to draw up a scientific plan to suit the situation. But it is too big a job for the chairman of the planning commission, a minister or a manager of an enterprise to formulate an objective, correct plan by closely examining all those factors himself. However shrewd one may be, it is impossible for a single individual to know all the details of production, such as manpower, the capacity of equipment, materials and funds. When a plan is worked out at a desk on the assumption that so many workers are required since there is so much equipment, that so much can be turned out since there are so many machines and so many employees, it cannot actually be called a plan. It is impossible for an individual to tap the reserves for production sitting alone in his office. The production capacity of even one enterprise and the demand for commodities of even one district are very varied. How is it possible for 392 === [PDF page 401] === a few officials to reflect the numerous and complicated factors of production which relate to the economic life of the whole country accurately? If you do not want to commit bureaucratic and subjective errors in planning, you should carry out the mass line thoroughly. The most important question raised during my guidance to the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant was precisely the question of eliminating bureaucracy and subjectivism and carrying through the mass line in planning. If planners want to carry through the mass line in their work, they should visit the actual production sites. Since each planning bureau is responsible for only a few enterprises at present, it will not be so difficult to become acquainted with the particular situation at each enterprise. If you visit the production sites and stay there for approximately 20 days or a month every year to get to know the actual conditions while working with the men on the spot, you can comprehend the situation completely. If you once get to know it well in this way and prepare cards on which you note down any changes which take place from time to time, you will always have a good understanding of the state of affairs at the factories and enterprises under your jurisdiction. But you do not do this well. At present, a big problem is that planning workers are reluctant to visit lower units. This is particularly true in the case of remote places, which are inconvenient to get to, like forestry stations. If you were to visit forestry stations to get to know the forest areas you would have to walk around and get sweaty, and since the stations are in the mountains, horseflies or ticks might bite you; so it seems you have no intention at all of going to such places. Since planning workers do not like to pay visits they cannot understand the situation, and since they do not know this, they cannot work out an accurate plan. Let us examine the question of planning coal production. Last year the State Planning Commission assigned a coal production quota of 700,000 tons to the Hungnyong Coal Mine, and the figure for this year 393 === [PDF page 402] === is 750,000 tons, or only 50,000 tons more. But these figures were calculated at a desk without anyone going to the coal mine. They did not in any way reflect the actual situation at the mine. After his visit to the Hungnyong Coal Mine, the chairman of the planning commission told me that the workers of the colliery had resolved to mine 1,500,000 tons of coal this year. One million tons will be mined without difficulty although they may not be able to mine the whole 1.5 million tons if we do not provide them with equipment and other requirements soon. One million tons are already more than 30 per cent over the planned assignment you gave them. You have had a great deal of debate on the coal production plan, but you argued in the abstract, in the office, without knowing the actual conditions, so it was, in fact, no more than idle talk. When they drew up the plan in their offices without knowing the exact conditions, even some of the vice-chairmen of the planning commission insisted that it was impossible to attain the output of coal as envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan. But later, they toured the coal mines where they gained a better understanding of the real problems and then they worked out the plan properly in accordance with the Party’s policies. As a result, they came to the conclusion that it was quite possible to achieve the desired production of coal. The Minister of Electricity and Coal Industries says that 19,000,000 tons of coal will be mined this year, and 24,000,000 tons next year. If this is so, we shall be able to reach the level of production predicted in the Seven-Year Plan next year. They do not ask the state for any big investment for the rapid increase in coal production. They say that if we supply them with 150 lorries and some more excavators, they will carry out extensive open-cast mining and reach the required production next year. We can supply them with all the lorries and excavators they need. We can give them excavators which we have manufactured. As for lorries, we can buy some and produce others. What has been the most controversial issue at the planning commission will thus be solved a year ahead of schedule. 394 === [PDF page 403] === Here, too, we can see how dangerous and pernicious bureaucracy and subjectivism are in planning. Experience shows that in carrying out Party policies it is most important for the planners to carry through the mass line and have a good understanding of the objective reality before attending to planning. But by formulating a plan after mass discussions, we do not mean that the state planning body can simply combine the plans presented by the producers as they are, without giving effective direction to their planning. You cannot say that plans prepared by the producers are all correct and objective. Some of our producers still have traces of the old capitalist ideology and are rather inclined to attach greater importance to the narrow interests of their organs and their districts than to the general economic life of the country. A striking example of this is that some ministries and management bureaus once even cut down planned figures submitted by the enterprises, in an attempt to obtain the lowest possible production quotas and so make their work easier. Districts and enterprises also have this tendency. It is also possible that junior officials do not see the existing reserves because of their limited knowledge and narrow-sightedness. It is necessary, therefore, to increase planning guidance and control by state planning officials if you want a plan which is not passive but is active, based on the interests of the state as a whole. To sum up, if the work of planning the national economy is to proceed correctly, not only should the mass line be followed in planning and subjectivism and bureaucracy of the state planning bodies be eliminated, but also guidance and control of planning by the state should be intensified and the departmentalism and regionalism of the producers be thoroughly eliminated. The only solution to this problem is the implementation of unified planning. Unified planning means that the state planning bodies and the planning cells across the nation make up a single planning system so as to ensure the complete unity of planning under the unified guidance of the State Planning Commission. Having set up the 395 === [PDF page 404] === unified system of planning, we formed a few units of regional planning commissions in each province under the direct control of the State Planning Commission. In this way the state planning bodies at all levels were made to check whether or not plans were worked out correctly in their respective localities and branches, to help the production establishments tap reserves and map out objective, scientific plans, and to report all instances of poor organization of production or wastage of labour and materials to the higher planning bodies and the Cabinet in good time for appropriate action to be taken. At the same time, we defined the planning departments in the organs of all levels including ministries, central organs, provincial people’s committees, provincial rural economy committees, and in the factories and enterprises as the limbs and cells of the State Planning Commission, and have seen to it that the state planning bodies are linked still closer with the planning departments of the ministries and enterprises and that guidance by the state planning bodies to the planning departments of the ministries and enterprises is strengthened. Such is the substance of the unified system of planning which we have recently introduced. This is an original system which is a creative development of Marxist-Leninist theory in conformity with the particular conditions of our country against flunkeyism towards big powers and dogmatism in planning. For several years, we have considered doing away with the unsuitable features of our previous planning system. I have read works of Marx, Engels and Lenin. I have also read the works of Stalin, who had experience in personally leading socialist economic construction. I have studied many foreign planning systems as well. But no reasonable system of planning suitable for our particular conditions was to be found in any Marxist-Leninist classics or in books written by foreigners. We had no alternative but to develop the universal Marxist-Leninist theory on planning in conformity with our country’s requirements and to perfect our own planning system by our own judgement. So, we went to the factories in order to study and, 396 === [PDF page 405] === often visited the countryside for the same purpose. In the course of this, we came to consider it most reasonable to set up a system in which state planning officials, well acquainted with the intentions of the Party and the general economic life of the country, would themselves visit the districts and consult with the broad masses of producers who are more familiar with the specific production reserves than anybody else in order to draw up the plan. And so we decided to establish a unified planning system. This system, an embodiment in planning of the great Chongsanri spirit and Taean work system, is the most powerful system which correctly combines centralized guidance with local initiative, and proletarian dictatorship with the mass line. If officials in the planning branch will only operate this system well, they can draw up plans for all branches of the national economy, including plans for industry, agriculture, capital construction, transport, commerce and procurement, so as to meet the intentions of the Party and the demands of the state and correctly reflect the specific realities of localities and enterprises. However, our planners do not fully understand the correctness of the Party line on unification of planning and do not try hard to raise its usefulness. It should be especially pointed out that officials of the State Planning Commission do not set the planning cells in motion properly. At present, they consider that only local planning bodies are under their direction. They do not regard the planning departments of the organizations and enterprises as their limbs and cells but, instead, as nuisances which they have to deal with, and they do not try to understand the objective position by setting the cells in action. If these cells do not perform their functions properly, the planning of the national economy as a whole cannot go smoothly, just as a living organism suffers from malfunctions in all its activities if its cells do not work normally. It is our Party’s fundamental method of work and the basic principle of our Party’s activities to put the cells in motion properly. The fact that our Party has developed into the powerful Party it is 397 === [PDF page 406] === today can be ascribed, in the long run, to the intensification of the activities of Party cells. Formerly anti-Party factionalists neglected to strengthen the cells and were lost in issuing commands and orders from above, and consequently they bungled Party work. We have been paying close attention to eliminating the former defects in Party work and to reinforcing the cells, the basic organizations of the Party, and getting them to function properly. Accordingly, a great change has taken place in Party work. This is also true of the work of the State Planning Commission. If the planning cells, which are your hands and feet, do not work well, you cannot carry out your planning successfully, no matter how many thousands or tens of thousands of people work with the planning commission. “A general without an army is no general,” as the saying goes, and no one person can do anything great on his own. Only when all the planning cells function properly can the factories maintain their own balance, and this also applies to the management bureaus; only then can the ministries maintain equilibrium between the management bureaus, and the State Planning Commission establish the equilibrium of the national economy as a whole. The point is that officials must improve their method of work in a revolutionary way to suit the new system. However excellent the work system, if the officials who operate it do their work by the same old method, they cannot bring the real vitality of the new system into full play. All our planning workers must clearly understand the essence of the unified system of planning created by our Party and steadily improve their work methods to strengthen and develop this system, thereby giving full scope to the immense superiority of the system. As well as unified planning, we have to translate detailed planning into practice. One of the major defects in our country’s planning is that plans are not drawn up in detail, but roughly and haphazardly. They lack scientific calculation and completeness, and they do not include details of all branches of the national economy. This being so, we only have plans for major items, e.g., so many tons of ore, steel or 398 === [PDF page 407] === cement, so many lorries and tractors, but we do not have the detailed plan of the number of bolts and cogwheels. In the past, too, we were generally aware that the lack of details was a major defect in planning. This has become all the more obvious as a result of our recent visits to various places for on-the-spot investigations. At present, what you call unbudgeted materials are, in fact, not included in the plan; detailed prospecting is not planned in the extractive industry; and detailed designs are not made in designing. Since there were no such detailed plans, it was inevitable that the use made of equipment was low, production did not go smoothly, and construction made no progress. So far, the State Planning Commission or the Cabinet has simply dictated that this or that be done, supplying only the budgeted materials but not the unbudgeted materials. Let me cite an example from the plan for tractor production. In assigning the task of producing so many thousand tractors, you included the budgeted materials such as sheet iron and rolled steel in the plan, but not unbudgeted materials such as screws, valves and bearings. Officials of the State Planning Commission consider things like screws or bearings secondary matters and leave them out of the plan. But it is precisely for want of such minor components that the tractor plant fails to turn out finished tractors. At present, planning of unbudgeted materials is left to the ministries which produce them, but I do not think that that is right. The ministries include in the plan and produce what they themselves need, but they are reluctant to produce items required by other ministries, considering it a nuisance. Plans for unbudgeted materials now drawn up by the ministries are, in fact, the so-called moral plans. A moral plan means one which each partner can carry out for the other if he wants to, but which he may ignore if he does not. Things are such that neither the State Planning Commission nor the ministries assume the responsibility for the unbudgeted materials. The result is that there is no one who has to answer for their supply. We cannot meet the demands for even such simple parts as nuts or 399 === [PDF page 408] === bolts just because there is no one who is responsible for undertaking and planning the work. It is true that the Ministry of Machine Industry is given the assignment of producing nuts and bolts. But it is given only the gross tonnage and no firm breakdown of the number and types of items to be produced. So it merely seeks to make up the tonnage with items which are easy to produce. As a result, there is an excess of some kinds and a total lack or shortage of others, and nuts and bolts always run short. Furthermore, in checking the capacity of a machine-building plant you do not take into account the different types of machines but consider only the total number of the cutting machines and assign it a general quota of so many tons based on this. The result is that the planned assignment is not fulfilled or at best, only crude products are manufactured. In transportation planning, too, you provide only for large freight shipments and ignore small ones. Consequently transport officials are reluctant to handle small amounts of materials or parts, saying that they are not provided for in the plan. With regards also to the provision of full equipment for the rice-cleaning mills, if we had made a detailed plan which provided for a definite amount of such-and-such parts to be turned out in a definite period of time by such-and-such factories, instead of merely shouting slogans, the grain-processing facilities would not be in the state they are today. But you just shouted slogans: “Complete the equipment of rice mills,” “Raise the efficiency of rice-cleaning.” So things could not work satisfactorily. It is also mainly because of our failure in detailed planning that the mining industry does not go ahead of other industries and that serious defects are revealed in capital construction. If you want to develop the mining industry, you will have to give priority to prospecting, and not only to preliminary prospecting but also to detailed and service prospecting. But you waste a great deal of labour, and fail to find sufficient mineral deposits because of futile tunnelling, which results from a lack of planning in detailed 400 === [PDF page 409] === prospecting. As for capital construction plans, if you want to have them worked out properly, you ought to check the possibility of supplying the materials and of producing the necessary machinery and equipment carefully and then draw up a detailed plan. You do not do the job in this way but so roughly that although the buildings are completed in the main, you occasionally postpone their commissioning for months for want of a couple of valves or a few metres of cable. Moreover, if there is no detailed plan, our officials will develop the bad habit of shirking their responsibilities and leaving hard and tough jobs to others. A plan which does not correctly specify the conditions for the supply of materials down to minor details cannot be called a good plan, whether it is a production plan or a construction layout. Strictly speaking, the plans we have made so far are not plans, but simply control figures. We must definitely eliminate such defects from our planning. In the socialist economy, planning should be done in such a way as to coordinate economic activities right down to minor details. Most importantly, there must be a detailed plan for providing materials. We have to see to it that even the unbudgeted materials are all taken into account in the plan. Some officials of the State Planning Commission say that no country ever produces a plan for unbudgeted materials. But I think there is no reason why we should not do so, just because foreign countries do not. We must solve all our problems in the revolution and construction to conform with the existing situation, in the interests of our revolution, and we have to abide by this principle in planning as well. We must perfect our planning to suit the conditions of our country, no matter what others do. Some people seem rather doubtful about detailed planning, saying that it will produce more than ten thousand plan indices, but we cannot draw back because of the large number of indices. At present, the state is confronted with many difficult problems: fabrics are being woven in 401 === [PDF page 410] === large quantities, and yet there is not enough of them for children’s clothes; and plenty of tractors and lorries are being produced but their utilization rate cannot be increased because of shortage of spare parts. All this is caused mainly by the absence of detailed planning. We should put detailed planning into practice, no matter whether the plan indices be ten thousand or several tens of thousands. It is true that it is rather complicated to draw up plans for all the odd items, but I think it is in no way impracticable. There is no reason why the State Planning Commission cannot do things which the ministries did in the past. According to our experience, it is not so hard to compile a few large figures, but you cannot run the socialist economy well with just this. The main point is to have both small things and large things accounted for properly in the plan. If you cannot draw up the detailed plan in a few days because of the multitude of indices, you should do it in a month or two or even a year, and if it is too difficult because of a shortage of staff, you should do it by increasing the number of planning workers. You could call on experienced technicians who are well acquainted with the actual conditions of the factory–one from a small mill and two or three from a large plant. If you sit down with them at a table, you will fully understand what is required by which factory, and in what quantities and what and how much the factory can supply to other factories or enterprises. If you work like this with the technicians who are familiar with actual conditions in the factories, you will be well able to work out plans, even on unbudgeted materials. Some people complain that the State Planning Commission selects for itself the staff which it needs. However, since this is an important matter, the people whose services are needed have to be called upon for the present, even though they may have to be sent back again later when they are no longer needed. This is, of course, a little complicated, but it is still preferable to draw up precise plans even in that way than to produce plans which are incomplete and which keep many people bustling around here and there searching for materials, and which hold up production for want of items like bearings or spare parts. Even if we 402 === [PDF page 411] === have to send out personnel from the administrative and management bodies to the factories, we will still have to take bold measures for mobilizing technicians from factories to have the plans prepared in minute detail. Since it is a tremendous task to draw up detailed plans, the State Planning Commission cannot carry it out on its own, no matter how many extra personnel it may have. It is feasible only when the State Planning Commission as well as planning bodies and planning departments of all levels, including planning bureaus of the ministries and planning sections of the enterprises, are all set in action. Detailed planning requires, first of all, that the State Planning Commission itself improve its work methods so as to strengthen its link with planning bodies at all levels and encourage all the planning bodies and planning workers to help and lead each other forward in their work in the interests of the state. At the same time, planning bodies at all levels should not wait for detailed plans to be sent from the State Planning Commission, but work them out themselves. Enterprises, likewise, must compile plans while attending to production. Since the capacities of equipment at production units of factories and enterprises are known and work norms established, specific plans can easily be drawn up once technicians and producers start working. When enterprises have worked out detailed plans in this way it is possible to coordinate them and then coordinate the plans of the management bureaus and, finally, those of the ministries. Plans of all branches and all production units of the national economy will thus be geared to one another and detailed plans will exist. It is absurd to say that detailed plans cannot be drawn up. The assertion that it is impossible to prepare detailed plans is, in the final analysis, a product of flunkeyism which holds that we cannot do something just because others cannot. It is against the mass line. We should put detailed planning into effect at all costs. In preparing detailed plans a definite demarcation has to be drawn. In other words, the limits of detailed plans should be defined 403 === [PDF page 412] === for the State Planning Commission, for regional planning commissions and for the ministries. But all detailed plans must assume a legal character and never be moral plans, no matter which planning cell draws them up. In this way, our national economic plan should be a plan which correctly maintains the general equilibrium of the national economy in conformity with the Party’s policies and the objective situation and, at the same time, is so specific as to enable all the branches and enterprises to gear their activities to the minutest details. 2. ON FIRMLY BUILDING UP THE PLANNING BODIES AND RAISING THE PARTY SPIRIT, CLASS SPIRIT AND POPULAR SPIRIT OF PLANNING WORKERS The State Planning Commission and other planning bodies should be solidly built up in order to give ample scope to the superiority of the unified system of planning and detailed planning created by our Party, and improve the work of planning conclusively. Planning bodies, including the State Planning Commission, can be called a bureau of economic operations which carries out the economic policy of our Party and Government. They play the role of an army operations bureau, as it were. The results of economic construction depend largely upon whether or not planning bodies compile the national economic plan correctly, just as the fate of a battle hinges upon whether or not the operations bureau produces an accurate operational plan. That is why we have to pay deep attention to strengthening planning bodies at all levels so as to improve economic management and operation and accelerate socialist construction still more. To prepare the national economic plan correctly not only the State 404 === [PDF page 413] === Planning Commission but also all regional planning commissions, planning departments of ministries and bureaus, of all the organizations and enterprises, must carry out their duties well. Therefore, all planning bodies and planning departments should be solidly built up. Just as you staff the army operations bureau with the most reliable personnel, with the most faithful and competent people, so you must provide planning bodies with the finest staff. Some people are inclined to look only for university graduates or those who have specialized in economic planning in order to augment the planning bodies. They should not do so. It is quite true that those who have completed university course and specialized in economic planning are fine, but not only university graduates can perform planning work. After all, to carry out planning work well means to execute the Party’s planning policies thoroughly. If someone has a strong Party spirit and firm fighting will to follow the Party line, he can become an excellent planning worker even though he is not a university graduate. Professional knowledge can be learned and those who have Party spirit can quickly acquire it. Therefore, Party organizations of all levels should see, above all, that planning bodies and planning departments are staffed with excellent workers who have strong Party spirit as well as economic and technical knowledge and who know how to manage the country’s economic life industriously. At the same time, we must persevere with educational work among the planning workers in order to raise their Party spirit, class spirit and popular spirit. Heavy responsibilities are laid on those comrades who are working with the planning bodies at all levels, including the State Planning Commission, which directly undertake the planning of the national economy. The whole economic life of the country is centred on the State Planning Commission, and important Party and state secrets are all in the hands of the planners. The Party places very great trust in planning workers and expects much from them. Planning workers who 405 === [PDF page 414] === are trusted by the Party should have a stronger revolutionary spirit, be more faithful to the Party and must have a higher sense of responsibility for the country’s economic life than anybody else. As has been critically pointed out at this meeting, however, officials of this branch have not, so far, lived up to the Party’s confidence and expectations. Quite a few planning officials do not have a high degree of Party and class spirit. The mass outlook is not established in them either and they very largely lack revolutionary spirit. Officials of the State Planning Commission lack the revolutionary characteristic of resolutely overcoming any hardships in carrying out the Party’s policies. They work in a very formalistic way, brushing aside all difficult problems. The state sustains a great loss because of the formalistic style of work and irresponsibility on the part of planning workers. As a result of their errors in calculation or a slip of their pen, a great deal of manpower, equipment and materials is wasted or kept idle, and we cannot produce more goods, which we could otherwise have done. Moreover, these officials seem to have tendency for self-protection so as to maintain their position from day to day instead of responsibly putting their full effort into doing work in the interests of the revolution. There are some people who are afraid of criticism and try to shirk their responsibilities, doing only as much work as is necessary to avoid rebuke. This is a serious expression of petty-bourgeois intellectual mentality. These officials have not adopted the mass viewpoint, either. It is workers and farmers who operate facilities and produce goods and they know about production better than anybody else. The cleverest people in the world are the producer masses. That is why the Party always asks you to produce plans after discussions with them. In spite of this, planning commission officials do not comply with this requirement of the Party properly. I was told that a certain senior official of the State Planning Commission went so far as to say that it was an unnecessary, useless thing to have the plans discussed at lower levels. Such a person considers himself to be the smartest and cleverest 406 === [PDF page 415] === in the world and does not try to listen to the views of the producer masses or even think of visiting them. And some comrades rejoice in the knowledge that they enjoy the Party’s confidence but do not bother to study the Party’s policies nor do they study so that they can improve the level of their theoretical and practical ability. And yet, they are pompous and self-satisfied, acting as if they alone knew everything and they are not willing to listen to what others say. The habit of looking down upon the masses is also an expression of bourgeois ideology. Workers in planning bodies are oblivious of the importance of their work and do it in a slovenly way without Party spirit, class spirit and popular spirit in such a manner that the State Planning Commission no longer fulfils its duty as a bureau of economic operations for the Party and the Government. Our planning officials have become not revolutionaries but mere salaried men who live by the abacus. Why, then, do these officials lack Party spirit, class spirit and popular spirit? They are not bad people by nature. It is true that they are all intellectuals, but that can never be the cause of the defects which they show in planning. Most of them are intellectuals who have been brought up by our Party since liberation, and even those who had studied before have all become intellectuals of the working class in the 20 years of revolutionary struggle and Party life following liberation. As far as the composition of the planning workers is concerned, there is no reason why we cannot trust them. As I stressed at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee, the problem is that the officials did not participate in Party organizational life well. The intellectuals have a petty-bourgeois mentality to start with and, moreover, they have neglected their revolutionary training through Party life. In consequence their petty-bourgeois ideology has gradually grown and eventually reached the serious state it is in today. The revolutionary tone of Party life to fight wrong practices and engage in mutual criticism is not established in officials of the State 407 === [PDF page 416] === Planning Commission. The old ideological traces of taking a formalistic attitude towards the Party’s policies and irresponsibly performing their work have not been destroyed in good time in the course of their Party life but have been continually fostered. Since they have neglected persistent ideological training through revolutionary Party life, they have naturally lost their Party, class and popular spirit, and degenerated into mere office workers who do nothing more than earn their daily bread. To improve and strengthen the work of the State Planning Commission from now on, the Party life of Party members must first be intensified. As you all know, there are not two kinds of discipline in the Party. No one can be privileged in Party cell life. The chairman, bureau chiefs and instructors are all equal members of the cell with the same duties and rights. In the course of Party life, a Party member can criticize any one who has shortcomings, and when he has them himself, he ought to be criticized. Only by widely promoting democracy and intensifying criticism in Party life can the Party spirit of members be steadfastly raised. A forceful campaign must be launched against the expression of all the old ideas still remaining among planning workers, such as formalistic, irresponsible approaches and self-protection in carrying out the Party policies. We must continue to raise the Party spirit, class spirit and popular spirit of the planning workers in this way from now on. Only by definitely raising the Party, class and popular spirit of the planners can the State Planning Commission and other planning bodies fully play the role of the bureau of economic operations for the Party and the Government, and advance without the slightest hesitation in the implementation of the Party policies. At the same time, the Party organizations should always pay great attention to fostering among the planning workers the attitude of a master towards the country’s economic life and improving their sense of responsibility as well as their political and professional abilities. 408 === [PDF page 417] === 3. ON THE ORIENTATION FOR DRAWING UP THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR During the last few days we have analysed and criticized the defects revealed in the work of the State Planning Commission. This aims at improving the planning work, an obstacle in the development of our national economy. You must boldly rectify the defects criticized at the present meeting and endeavour henceforth to effect a radical improvement in the planning of the national economy. The important task immediately facing the officials of the State Planning Commission is to formulate an accurate national economic plan for next year. Now I should like to mention some problems arising in the production of this plan. We must first draw up an accurate capital construction plan. So far, there has hardly been a year in which we fulfilled the plan for capital construction. True, the blame for this lies also in the poor work of officials in the construction field, but the main reason is that the capital construction plan itself was not prepared coherently. It has become a constant problem in our planning that we work out the capital construction plan in a hit-or-miss manner, and then we do not carry it out. We must cure this malady once and for all, and from now on, will have to foster the habit of completing annual plans for capital construction at all costs. To achieve this we must first draw up an accurate capital construction plan for next year. Next year, we have to avoid undertaking new construction, but concentrate on completing what we have already started. We shall have to undertake many national defence projects, and allocate a great deal of building material for them, including rolled 409 === [PDF page 418] === steel and cement. Furthermore, there are quite a few construction projects at present under way in different places. Therefore, no new construction projects should be included in the capital construction plan for the coming year. In fact, there are at present many new projects for us to carry out. But if we just keep adding new projects when many construction works are not yet completed, it will freeze state funds and prevent us from increasing production. We must ensure that no new construction is provided for next year but that works now under way are completed first. Among other things, we ought to concentrate on those projects which are important and urgent, and hold over those which are not. Of the works now under way, we should first of all concentrate our efforts next year on the power plant projects and those designed to enable us to achieve the target in fertilizer production. In the electric power sector we must concentrate on the construction and early completion of the thermal power station in Pyongyang. The construction works of the Unbong and Kanggye Power Stations also have to be finished soon. You must see to it that the construction of the Naejungri Power Plant which has been dragging on for a long time is stepped up and speedily completed. In the chemical industry sector we have to continue to work for the second-stage project of the Aoji Chemical Factory and the third-stage project of the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory now under way, and complete them next year. At the same time, we should make great efforts for the re-equipment and augmentation of the facilities of the fertilizer factories which are already in operation in order to increase their capacity further. Besides this, we should finish the construction of pharmaceutical and chemical factories soon, and we had better not undertake any more projects. There is no big construction project worth mentioning in the metal and machine-building industries or in other branches. In the branch of the metal industry, we need to provide the Musan Mine with a small electric oven, complete reconstruction and 410 === [PDF page 419] === extension work of blast furnace No. 1 of the Kim Chaek Iron Works, and should begin no further new construction projects. Some comrades suggest that we should enlarge the electric furnaces of the Kangson Steel Plant and build another big steel furnace at the Songjin Steel Plant, but these are not necessary for the present. What is the use of constructing new furnaces when we are not even in a position to operate the existing furnaces normally? It is preferable to complete, as soon as possible, the ore-dressing shops which are now under construction at the mines and send sufficient supplies of ore to the iron works. Then, more pig iron and granulated iron will be turned out, and accordingly, the production of steel and rolled steel will be increased. In the metal industry, construction works for prospecting and tunnelling should be carried on but you should not start anything else, and ought to save as much building material as possible and build up reserves. In this way, we should fully ensure the major construction projects we envisage, such as the converter and rolling shops of the Kim Chaek Iron Works and the coke oven of the Hwanghae Iron Works. With regard to the machine-building industry, we ought to concentrate on the early completion of the construction of the mining machinery factory and the steel casting shop of the Ryongsong Machine Factory as well as that of the electrical machinery plant, which has already been started. In agriculture, too, we should only complete projects under construction, such as the Amnokgang irrigation project, but we should not begin any new works. In the agricultural branch we should instead repair the existing irrigation facilities to prevent water leakage and provide for better maintenance. At present, we have in fact enough reserves of water to irrigate not 700,000 but a million hectares. But a great deal of water is being wasted because of poor water control. Therefore, it is more important to reinforce the existing reservoirs properly, repair the waterways and attend to water control rather than build new reservoirs. Another problem we should pay special attention to in the capital 411 === [PDF page 420] === construction plan for next year is the maximum utilization of the existing buildings in setting up factories imported from abroad. Next year, we will establish the tyre factory when the equipment arrives, as well as the rim plant for which we already have the equipment. We have to put the tyre factory into operation quickly even if it means erecting new buildings if we cannot find more production space in existing factories. There is no need to erect new buildings for the glass factories. If we rationally re-adapt and re-arrange the facilities of the Nampho Glass Factory, we can still install more equipment there. In this way, we should ensure that the factory equipment bought at a large expenditure of foreign currency is not put into storage, but installed as soon as possible for production. Only then can we accomplish the goals of the Seven-Year Plan, save more foreign currency and use it for defence construction and for the improvement of the people’s living standards. Furthermore, we have to give our close attention to using the capacity of the existing equipment to the utmost when we draw up plans for next year. The Fourth Congress of our Party set out as an important task of the Seven-Year Plan the need to put flesh on the skeleton of the heavy industry which we have already built. But this is not being carried out well in a number of factories and enterprises. The reason is that senior economic officials have not fully understood the content and importance of the task. As for the question of fleshing out the skeleton of the industry, some comrades mistakenly think that building big new factories accomplishes this. It is true that the erection of new factories may be regarded as fleshing out from the standpoint of the national economy as a whole, but when it comes to an enterprise taken on its own, that is a different matter. At individual enterprises to put flesh on means precisely to replenish the basic production facilities in operation with a little more auxiliary equipment which they need. For example, no loading crane is installed for the open-hearth furnaces at the 412 === [PDF page 421] === Hwanghae Iron Works, thus causing difficulties in production; you install loading cranes there, and this is the fleshing out. Only when factories and enterprises augment such facilities can you run the basic facilities at full capacity and maintain normal production. Since some officials do not fully understand this they try in many cases to fulfil the production plan by increasing the basic facilities instead of trying to raise the capacity of the existing facilities to the maximum. For instance, the Chongjin Steel Plant concentrated on producing crude pellets, with the result that the production of granulated iron dropped. Officials of this steel plant allege that it had not hampered production, contending that the equipment needed to turn out crude pellets was provided by the Ministry of Machine Industry; but it is a fact that the steel plant itself spent a great deal of energy on it, and consequently production was held up. If they had directed their energies, instead, to the repair and maintenance of the existing facilities, the steel plant would certainly have produced at least 200,000 tons of granulated iron this year. It is, of course, necessary to set up new processes such as the construction of furnaces and the production of crude pellets. But if you expand new construction without properly utilizing existing facilities, it is more likely to hamper production. Therefore, factories and enterprises should always direct their main efforts to the repair, maintenance and augmentation of the existing equipment so as to operate it at full capacity. Since the vinyl chloride plant of the Pongung Chemical Factory, Sinuiju Chemical Fibre Mill, Hyesan Kraft Paper Mill and the like are not yet able to run at full capacity, it is more important to operate the existing facilities at full capacity now than to carry out construction works to increase their production capacity. To ensure the proper repair and maintenance of the existing facilities for the further increase of their capacity, you should build up the repair and power-supply shops well and improve their effectiveness. It is always the fundamental duty of the repair and 413 === [PDF page 422] === power-supply shops of factories and enterprises to provide promptly parts and replacements needed to maintain and repair the production facilities at the enterprises to which they are attached. But at present, many factories and enterprises give other assignments to these shops without forethought. Rigid discipline has to be established so that they can prepare only the accessories necessary for the repair and maintenance of the production facilities of their own enterprises and never engage in unrelated work. With the new machine tools to be turned out, the state must first make the machine-building industry rectify the imbalance between its own machines and then build up the repair and power-supply shops for the factories and enterprises. In preparing the plan for next year, a great deal of effort has to be directed to the advancement of the mining industry. This industry remains a weak link in the development of the national economy of our country. Next year we should continue to concentrate on the mining industry and put new life into it. To shore up the industry, as I have said time and again, three things have to be done; first, intensify geological prospecting; second, introduce a widespread movement for technical innovation; and third, develop scientific research. To increase geological prospecting, while building up the ranks of prospectors, we should combine prospective surveys with immediate ones properly and must first obtain the necessary prospecting equipment so as to make it possible to carry out preliminary, detailed and service prospectings together. To push ahead with the technical revolution in the mining industry, we have to produce more mining equipment. At the same time, we should see to it that research work is intensified among scientists for the development of this industry and thus ensure that more advanced methods of mining are introduced. Another important factor in drawing up the plan is to alleviate the strain on the railways. At present our country is hard pressed to meet the needs of railway 414 === [PDF page 423] === transport. We cannot satisfy the ever-increasing demands of the national economy for transport without further boosting the transport capacity of the railways and relaxing the strain. However, we can hardly solve this issue in only two or three years by means of laying new railway lines alone. Therefore, in this case, as in others, we ought not to spread new capital construction projects, but try to raise the transport capacity of existing railways. First, we should extend the number of locomotives and further increase their traction power. We must produce more electric locomotives so that all the electrified sections of the railways are served by electric locomotives, and allocate the steam locomotives which are thereby released, to other sections. On the other hand, locomotive-repair capacity should be raised to allow the use of many more locomotives. We ought to import diesel engines from other countries even though it may cost us some foreign currency. In addition to this, the railway plants should be fully supplied with necessary materials, including iron plates, to produce a large number of 60-ton goods wagons. Rails should be replaced where necessary, and they should always be well maintained. In this way, you should not only be able to ensure that more locomotives go into operation but that additional loads are carried on each run. It is also important to speed up loading and unloading as a means of improving the transport capacity of the railways. The main reason why the round-trip time of goods wagons cannot be cut down at present is that freight is loaded and unloaded too slowly. Loading and unloading must be mechanized to speed them up. More cranes should be allocated to the railway service and installed at railway stations and factory freight yards, so that freight wagons will be loaded or unloaded as soon as they arrive, enabling them to leave quickly. In this way we shall be able to raise the transport capacity markedly even with our present railway system. Some officials in this branch, however, only think of building new railways, talking of roundabout lines, double tracks, and so on, instead of trying to make better use of existing railways. That is wrong. 415 === [PDF page 424] === At the last Cabinet meeting, the Minister of Railways said that the project of switching over the Pyongyang-Wonsan line to a double track would take no more than a year and a half, but that is not in accord with the facts. As you all know, the section between Pyongyang and Wonsan has many tunnels and cliffs and it is only wishful thinking to assume that the work of adding another track could be done so easily. A plan, drawn up by our officials out of a mere subjective desire without precise calculation of the objective conditions, is not only impracticable, but even prejudicial to the state. The railway electrification project between Pyongyang and Sinuiju has already been completed. But since we are short of electric locomotives, steam engines still run there, pouring out smoke. We have used a great deal of copper for the electrification of the railways. If we continue to use steam engines when all the electric lines are installed, there is no need to electrify the railways at the cost of expensive copper. The next question we should pay attention to in making plans is to save as much foreign currency as possible. In all sectors of the national economy, especially, we should, on the one hand, check in detail how much gasoline is used and tighten control over the consumption of fuel, and, on the other, launch a widespread campaign to save fuel. We should not only save foreign currency in all possible ways, but also seek various means of earning more of it. We should thus see that more facilities and products are procured, which we badly need. Lastly, I would like to say a few words about the Seven-Year Plan. There have been many changes at home and abroad in the course of implementing the Seven-Year Plan. In the period since we set to work on it the manoeuvrings of the modern revisionists have become more undisguised, coupled with the intensified aggressive manoeuvres of the imperialists. The revisionists fell on their knees before the threat and blackmail of the US imperialists and capitulated against the interests of the revolution. Under such circumstances, we had to take 416 === [PDF page 425] === measures for a further increase in our own defence capabilities. This could only have a detrimental effect upon our execution of the Seven-Year Plan. In addition, the revisionists were opposed to our building an independent national economy, and applied economic pressure on us. Consequently, it has become impossible for us to carry on some of the construction projects envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan. Had we carried out all the construction works as originally scheduled, there would not have been much difficulty in achieving the main goals of the Seven-Year Plan, including that of steel. The difficulties we have had in implementing the Seven-Year Plan have thus been caused by the changes in the situation which have taken place in the course of its implementation. We need not fear the difficulties in achieving it. It is quite true that the realization of some of our goals in the realm of economic construction has been retarded for a year or two because of the machinations of the US imperialists and modern revisionists. This was inevitable. We could not give up our revolutionary principles and toe the line of the revisionists’ policy of capitulation for a few more tons of steel. We need not worry because the steel production envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan is slightly behind schedule, but we ought, instead, to be proud that we have kept to the revolutionary position of communists in hard times and built the solid economic foundations we have today by our own efforts. We are not carrying out the Seven-Year Plan to find favour in anyone’s eyes or to win admiration. We carry on socialist economic construction in order to make our country wealthy and strong and to improve the well-being of our people, always in conformity with our actual situation. So, in carrying out the Seven-Year Plan, too, we should first achieve what we are able to, and carry out the rest later according to changes in the situation. If we fight well, we can achieve our goals in fertilizer and coal next year, and as to the production of grain, we can achieve this also if we exert ourselves for a year or two. Production of pig iron and steel is 417 === [PDF page 426] === rather difficult; but it will not matter very much if we fulfil the plan a year or two later. The point is that our officials and all Party members must actively fight for the execution of the Seven-Year Plan in the period that remains, using all their ability and wisdom. Officials of the State Planning Commission, in particular, who are directly in charge of planning work, have to make greater efforts than anyone else. This meeting should be an important turning point for officials of the State Planning Commission in training themselves into workers who are boundlessly faithful to the Party. Many criticisms have been made, mainly of senior officials, at this meeting. But they are not the only ones with shortcomings. All planning commission officials should reflect upon the fact that this commission did not do its work well in the past, and should try hard to correct the defects. In addition, the Party organizations of the planning commission should retain officials in their posts, and patiently try to train them into revolutionaries who are infinitely faithful to the Party. They should guide all Party members well to take an active part in Party organizational life and make a deep study of our Party’s policies at all times. I think it is good for those comrades who are inexperienced and unskilled in planning to visit factories and enterprises and live there for two or three months, learning from the workers and training themselves. In this way, officials of the State Planning Commission should be fully prepared to carry through the Party’s line and policy in planning at all times, working from their own clear-cut standpoint and judgement. I am firmly convinced that officials of the State Planning Commission will boldly rectify all their defects and fully meet the requirements of the Party after this general membership meeting, thereby bringing about a decisive change in the planning of the national economy. 418 === [PDF page 427] === ON THE OCCASION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WORKERS’ PARTY OF KOREA Report Delivered at the Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea October 10, 1965 Comrades, Today we are observing the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the guiding force of our people and the General Staff of our revolution. On this historic occasion, on behalf of the Central Committee of our Party, I warmly congratulate our Party members and all our people who, holding aloft the banner of the Party, have worked hard and strenuously for the revolution. I should also like to extend warm encouragement to our comrades in south Korea, to the patriotic and democratic public figures, the young people and students and all the people of south Korea who, in defiance of the enemy’s fascist suppression and terrorism, are courageously fighting for freedom, liberation and the reunification of the country. At the same time, I warmly greet our 600,000 compatriots in Japan and all our overseas compatriots who have long been fighting abroad for the reunification and independence of their country and for their national rights. On behalf of the Workers’ Party of Korea, I also pay deep respect 419 === [PDF page 428] === to the Communist and Workers’ Parties and all progressive peoples for their internationalist support of our people’s revolutionary cause. Many revolutionary fighters have laid down their lives for our country’s independence, for the people’s freedom and the great cause of communism. I offer the greatest tribute to the memory of our Party members, non-Party democratic public figures and all the patriotic martyrs who gave their precious blood and lives to the Party, the country and the people. Their exploits will shine for ever in the history of the revolutionary struggle of our Party and people. Comrades, twenty years is not a long time in the history of a political party. However, during this period, our Party has achieved a great deal for the freedom and welfare of the working people including the working class, for the prosperity of our country and nation. Leading the people, our Party has achieved national independence, accomplished a democratic revolution, carried out a great socialist revolution that has done away with all forms of exploitation and oppression, and completed a tremendous volume of construction projects which have given a new appearance to the country. In the hard-fought battle against the armed invasion of the US imperialists and their stooges, the Party led our people to victory and gloriously defended the country and the revolution. Our Party has won the unanimous support and confidence of our people for its correct Marxist-Leninist leadership, boundless loyalty to the people and uncompromising struggle against the enemy. Even though our Party is only twenty years old, it is by no means young when viewed in the light of the history of the Korean communist movement as a whole. The Korean communist movement has 40 years of history even if one counts from 1925, when the first Communist Party was organized in our country. For more than 40 years we have fought for the cause of the communist movement, shed much blood in the revolutionary struggle against Japanese and US imperialism and the reactionary forces at home, and have traversed a rough and thorny path of struggle, falling down many a time but always rising to our feet again. We have not only fought against the 420 === [PDF page 429] === imperialist forces of aggression and the internal reactionary forces; we have also waged a long and bitter battle against all shades of opportunism appearing within the ranks of the communist movement. The Workers’ Party of Korea is a seasoned Marxist-Leninist party which has grown up and been tempered in the flames of this struggle, in the course of which it has performed great deeds and gained a wealth of experience. Our Party is a revolutionary and militant Marxist-Leninist party which is united by a single thought and will, maintains blood ties with the masses of the people and is steadily advancing in unremitting struggle, opposing conservatism and stagnation. This shows that our Party is capable of weathering any storm and of skilfully and confidently leading the Korean revolution. Comrades, The Korean communists and working class had to go through a long and tortuous struggle before they were able to found a genuine Marxist-Leninist party of their own. In our country the communist movement originated at a time when the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle of the Korean people was raging, as the Korean working class, in particular, was gradually appearing on the scene of conflict. The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia marked an important turning point in the spread of Marxism-Leninism in our country. The victorious October Revolution greatly stimulated and inspired our people, who had long been fighting against feudal oppression and Japanese imperialist occupation, and it was a trail blazer that showed them the correct path of struggle. As early as 1918 the progressive patriotic fighters of our country began their activities for the spread of Marxism-Leninism and 421 === [PDF page 430] === endeavoured to put the national-liberation struggle of the Korean people on to a new road of development under its banner. But in those days Japanese imperialist suppression was ferocious and, on top of that, the working class was very young in our country, which means that broad dissemination of Marxism-Leninism was impossible. Consequently, the liberation struggle of our people could not go beyond the limits of a bourgeois national movement. The nationwide March 1 Uprising which broke out in 1919 under the influence of the October Revolution demonstrated the patriotic mettle and revolutionary stamina of the Korean people and dealt a telling blow against the Japanese imperialist occupiers. However, it also revealed all the limitations and weaknesses of bourgeois nationalism. The defeat of the March 1 Uprising taught the revolutionaries and the patriotic people of Korea important lessons. For this reason, after the March 1 Movement the liberation struggle of the Korean people gradually developed with the working class in the lead, under the banner of Marxism-Leninism. In the early 1920s, the working class grew and firmly stepped onto the battlefield. Marxist-Leninist circles were set up and became active in different parts of the country; the influence of Marxist-Leninist ideology spread rapidly among the masses. Many labour, peasant and youth organizations appeared, and mass struggles, including workers’ strikes, took place. The Communist Party of Korea was founded in 1925 with the spread of Marxism-Leninism and the growth of the working-class movement. The founding of the Communist Party gave an impetus to the development of the working-class, peasant and national-liberation movements. The June 10 Independence Demonstration took place under the leadership of the communists and mass worker and peasant struggles against the Japanese imperialists, landlords and capitalists increased in scope. In those days the communists carried on their activities in difficult conditions; repression by Japanese imperialism was severe and the 422 === [PDF page 431] === Party itself suffered from serious weaknesses. Most of its senior posts were held by petty-bourgeois careerists with a poor knowledge of Marxism-Leninism and a shaky class position, and the Party organizations failed to take root among the working class and the broad masses. Worse still, fierce sectarian strife among the factionalists prevented the Party from securing unity within its ranks. Consequently, the Communist Party, unable to prevent its suppression at the hands of Japanese imperialism and the destructive activities of the factionalists, ceased to exist as an organized force just three years after its foundation. And so, in the 1920s, the communist movement in our country experienced setbacks and twists and turns in its development, and it proved to have many defects and shortcomings. This shows that the Korean communist movement was still in its infancy and that the subjective and objective conditions for the movement were not yet ripe at that time. However, the struggle in those days did succeed in spreading Marxism-Leninism in our country and marked the beginning of the communist movement, and left in its wake vital lessons for future development. The communists continued the struggle even after the breakup of their party. From the 1930s up to the liberation of our country, the Korean communist movement developed in the course of a continued underground struggle, and especially through the anti-Japanese armed struggle. From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, Japanese imperialist repression grew unprecedentedly cruel, and every opportunity for legal opposition was wiped out. Meanwhile, the violent struggle of the workers and peasants against the violent suppression of the Japanese imperialists grew more intense. The Wonsan dockers’ general strike, militant walkouts of the Sinhung coal miners and the Pyongyang Rubber Goods Factory workers, struggles of the farm workers on the Fuji Estate in Ryongchon and of the peasants in Tanchon and Yonghung, plus the Kwangju Student Incident, are typical examples 423 === [PDF page 432] === of the violent mass resistance which occurred in all parts of our country during that period. In such circumstances the advance of the Korean people’s liberation struggle inevitably called for the development of violent mass struggle, its extensive expansion and transformation into organized armed struggle. The Korean communists put this into action. Under the leadership of the communists our revolutionary workers and peasants organized and waged the anti-Japanese armed struggle, thus advancing the Korean people’s national-liberation struggle to a new stage. Anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare represented an advanced form of struggle which pitted the armed forces of the revolution against those of the counter-revolution; it dealt one heavy blow after another against the Japanese imperialist aggressors, giving powerful encouragement and inspiration to all other forms of mass struggle. The anti-Japanese armed struggle exerted a broad revolutionary influence upon the people in all walks of life, thus strengthening and developing still more all aspects of our people’s anti-Japanese struggle for liberation. Despite the Japanese imperialist repression, the communists kept up their underground activities in different parts of the country; revolutionary trade union and peasants’ association movements, workers’ strikes and peasants’ tenancy disputes broke out one after another; and violent mass actions against the Japanese imperialists grew even broader in scope. In the course of all these battles centring on the anti-Japanese armed struggle, the Korean working class firmly took its place in the forefront of the national-liberation movement, the worker-peasant alliance under the leadership of the working class grew in strength and scope, and, on this basis, a national united front movement against Japanese imperialism was carried out on a wide scale. In addition to this, the international solidarity of the national-liberation movement in our country was strengthened. The communists and the anti-Japanese revolutionary army of Korea, in close cooperation with the Chinese 424 === [PDF page 433] === people, waged a protracted joint war against the common enemy, and they fought against Japanese imperialism side by side with the Soviet people. Under communist leadership our revolutionary army waged a bloody campaign for 15 long years and, at last, won the historic victory of the country’s liberation by joining the Soviet army in the battle to crush the Japanese imperialists. The anti-Japanese armed struggle, after overcoming the basic weaknesses present in the early years of the Korean communist movement, laid the organizational and ideological groundwork for the founding of a Marxist-Leninist party and established the most glorious revolutionary traditions of our people. The trials of arduous guerrilla warfare saw the emergence of true communist revolutionaries and the attainment of firm unity in the revolutionary ranks. It was not until the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle that Marxism-Leninism became interwoven with the realities of our country, and the communist movement with the revolutionary struggle of our people for national and social emancipation. In this way, the leading core of the communist movement in Korea was formed, the organizational framework for founding a party was built, and the Marxist-Leninist strategy and tactics of our revolution were worked out. The communists won the deep confidence of the masses by maintaining close ties with them and fighting with complete devotion in their cause. The communist movement in Korea thus grew in scope and strength in the course of the protracted anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle, and in the 1940s it was possible to organize a glorious Marxist-Leninist party with the communists tested in the revolutionary struggle as its backbone. Thanks to the epoch-making development of the Korean communist movement in the course of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, our Party was founded on a solid basis even in the complex post-liberation circumstances and was able to lead the revolutionary struggle of the Korean people correctly from its inception. The 425 === [PDF page 434] === brilliant revolutionary traditions and fighting experiences gained in the anti-Japanese armed struggle are priceless treasures which our Party and people must inherit and develop for the victory of the Korean revolution. Comrades, After the August 15 liberation, new and critical obstacles arose in the path of the Korean revolution. The US imperialists occupied south Korea; the reactionaries flocked there from home and abroad; the former stooges of Japanese imperialism turned into lackeys of US imperialism to oppose the Korean people. We were confronted by the aggressive policy of the US imperialists who were not only opposed to the Korean revolution and the building of a unified independent state by the Korean people but were also trying to extend their influence to north Korea. This meant that for the time being the Korean communist movement and all the revolutionary struggles of the Korean people had to be conducted separately in the north and the south, under differing sets of circumstances and in different forms. In this situation, the communists in north Korea faced the task of carrying through a democratic revolution against the remaining forces of imperialism and feudalism and of working to build a unified, democratic independent state, by consolidating their ranks quickly and rallying the broad masses of the people around them. Because of the aggressive policy of the US imperialists, it was vital to push the revolution ahead in already-liberated north Korea with great energy and create a solid revolutionary base there in order to clear the way successfully for the country’s reunification and the victory of the revolution in the whole country. 426 === [PDF page 435] === Therefore, we communists first set about the work of founding a Marxist-Leninist party of our own. We reconstructed the Party strictly in keeping with the Marxist-Leninist principles of party building, with the communists who had been seasoned in the revolutionary struggle as its core and uniting the communist groups which were active in different localities. The Korean communists, who had been carrying on their struggle separately in different revolutionary organizations without a united party of their own for a long time, at last set up the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea in Pyongyang on October 10, 1945, thus proclaiming the founding of our Party to the world. Our Party was born in the complicated and chaotic circumstances immediately after liberation, in the midst of the struggle against the subversive activities of the class enemy and all shades of opportunism, including factionalism and provincialism. On the basis of the organizational and ideological preparations for founding a party made during the anti-Japanese armed struggle, and relying on the rising tide of revolutionary enthusiasm and active support of our working class and labouring people, we succeeded in overcoming all difficulties and obstacles, and splendidly carried out the great work of founding a Marxist-Leninist party. It was the priceless fruit of the persistent battles and endeavours of the Korean communists to found a revolutionary working-class party, and it marked a historic turning point in the development of the communist movement of our country and the Korean revolution as a whole. The working class and labouring people of Korea now had a Marxist-Leninist General Staff, a powerful vanguard detachment, in their revolutionary struggle and could advance victoriously along the road of revolution under the leadership of the Party. No sooner had our Party been founded than it launched the struggle to carry out the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution and to build a democratic base in the northern half of the country. To begin with, the Party formed a united front with all political parties and groups and democratic forces representing different layers 427 === [PDF page 436] === of society, and organized and mobilized the broad masses to destroy completely the old ruling machinery of Japanese imperialism and set up the power organ of a new type, thus solving the question of power, the key issue of the revolution. The power we set up has become a mighty weapon for the revolution and construction, as a genuine people’s power based on the worker-peasant alliance led by the working class and representing the interests of people from all walks of life. Under the leadership of the Party, our people’s power successfully effected democratic reforms including agrarian reform and the nationalization of industries, with the support and participation of the broad masses of the people. On the basis of these democratic reforms, economic and cultural construction advanced rapidly and the people’s living standards became stable. At the same time, our Party founded the people’s armed forces to defend the gains of the revolution, with the revolutionary cadres formed and tempered in the long anti-Japanese armed struggle as the backbone. In this way the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution was completed in the northern half of our country in only a year or two following liberation, and the north began to develop as the secure base of the Korean revolution. This was the first victory our people won in building a new life under the leadership of the Party. The decisive guarantee of victory both in the revolutionary struggle and in construction work is in building up the revolutionary forces, that is, fortifying the Party, the General Staff in the revolution, and rallying the broad masses around it. The consistent line of our Party in building up the revolutionary forces is to consolidate the Party organizationally and ideologically and to awaken the masses and win them over to the side of the revolution through the practical struggle for revolution and construction; to form all Party members into revolutionaries through the nuclear role of the communists tempered in the long years of revolutionary struggle; and to arm all the people with the revolutionary spirit through the nuclear role of the Party members. 428 === [PDF page 437] === We were able to establish the people’s power and carry out the democratic revolution successfully in a short space of time after liberation, because in keeping with this line of the Party, we won over the broad masses and united and mobilized all the patriotic, democratic forces to implement the revolutionary tasks. Meanwhile, our Party was strengthened, its prestige among the masses increased and they rallied around it in the course of the struggle to set up the people’s power and carry out democratic reforms. Our Party’s development into the Workers’ Party, a united political party of the labouring masses, through a merger with the New Democratic Party was an epoch-making event in the expansion and reinforcement of our revolutionary forces. As a result of the merger, our Party became a mass political party uniting in its ranks the advanced elements not only of the working class but also of the labouring peasants and working intellectuals. The merger of the Communist Party with the New Democratic Party made it possible to strengthen the Party forces and further expand the ranks of revolutionaries, and enabled the Party to strike even deeper roots among the broad masses. It also eliminated the danger of the working people’s revolutionary forces being divided by the existence of two working people’s parties, strengthened the alliance of the workers, peasants and working intellectuals under the leadership of the working class and further consolidated the united front of the democratic forces of all classes and sections. Comrades, the democratic changes which took place in the northern half of the country in a short space of time after liberation led to the strengthening of our revolutionary base politically, economically and militarily, and thus provided a guarantee for the victory of our people in the Fatherland Liberation War. The war forced upon us by US imperialism and its stooges was the most severe trial faced by our Party and people. Under the leadership of the Party, our people emerged from the test with honour. In the arduous war against the powerful enemy, our Party, shouldering the destiny of the country, organized and mobilized the people for the 429 === [PDF page 438] === sacred struggle to annihilate the enemy, and they fought bravely, no matter what the cost, for victory in the war in response to the Party’s call. By waging a heroic struggle in cooperation with the Chinese People’s Volunteers and with the unanimous support of the peoples of all socialist countries, the Korean people and the Korean People’s Army hurled back the enemy’s armed invasion and defended the independence of their country and the gains of their revolution. The victory of our people in the Korean war was a victory of the revolutionary people over the imperialist reactionary forces, a victory of the revolutionary army over the aggressive armed forces of imperialism. It proved that a people who take up arms for freedom, independence and progress, taking their destiny into their own hands under the leadership of a Marxist-Leninist party, will never be conquered by any imperialist forces of aggression. It also exposed the vulnerability and corruption of US imperialism and showed the oppressed nations of the world that US imperialism is by no means an unconquerable enemy and that they can fight and defeat it decisively. In the Korean war, the US imperialists suffered an ignominious military defeat for the first time in the history of the United States; this meant the beginning of a downward path for US imperialism. With the serious wounds received in this war still unhealed, the US imperialists are being dealt new and unremitting blows by the revolutionary peoples of the world and they are now sinking deeper into a state of ruin. Through the war, our Party and people have grown stronger and increasingly confident of the victory of their just cause. Now our Party is a Marxist-Leninist party which has not only led the revolution and construction but was also tested and accumulated a wealth of experience in the crucible of the hard war. The cadres and Party members have been steeled, the workers, peasants, intellectuals and all the people have been tempered, and the unity of the Party and people has become even firmer. Our People’s Army has grown into a powerful revolutionary army. Besides veteran revolutionary cadres seasoned in the protracted 430 === [PDF page 439] === revolutionary struggle, hundreds of thousands of new revolutionaries have been trained in the flames of war and our revolutionary ranks have been greatly expanded and strengthened. Our people are firmly convinced that they can weather any storm and emerge victorious when they are deeply aware of their own great strength and fight on in close unity along the path indicated by the Party. Comrades, The countries freed from the yoke of imperialism and colonialism must take the socialist road of development in order to achieve genuine freedom, independence and progress. The days of capitalism are numbered. The capitalist road is one of exploitation and oppression, dependence and ruin. Socialism alone guarantees freedom and well-being for all the people and complete independence and prosperity for the country by eradicating class exploitation and national oppression. Under the leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea our people have advanced along the road of socialism. In the northern half of our country a start was made even before the war to carry out, on the basis of the accomplishment of the democratic revolution, the tasks of the period of gradual transition to socialism. In the postwar period, the socialist revolution and construction became urgent requirements for socio-economic development in the north. They were also vital for the further political and economic consolidation of our revolutionary base and for promoting the country’s reunification and the victory of the Korean revolution as a whole. Following the armistice, therefore, our Party concentrated its efforts, first of all, on rehabilitating the war-ravaged national economy 431 === [PDF page 440] === and on stabilizing and improving the impaired standard of living of the people, while strongly carrying forward the socialist revolution. The Party put forward the line of ensuring the priority growth of heavy industry simultaneously with the development of light industry and agriculture, thus decisively strengthening the country’s economic basis and, at the same time, stabilizing the people’s living standards in a short period of time. The Party also followed the policy of forging ahead with the socialist transformation of production relations while working on reconstruction, thereby opening up a broad avenue for the rapid recovery of the productive forces and their further development. By enlisting to the full the revolutionary zeal and creative powers of our people tempered in the war and all our domestic resources, and by making effective use of the aid from the fraternal countries, our Party carried through its correct lines and policies and thus triumphantly completed the extremely difficult tasks of the postwar rehabilitation period. Industrial and agricultural production not only regained their prewar level but far surpassed it, and great advances were also made in socialist transformation. On the basis of the successes of the postwar rehabilitation period, our Party put forward the line of promoting the socialist revolution and construction still further and roused all the working people to the struggle for its implementation. This Party line expressed our people’s aspirations for rapid progress, and it met with their unanimous approval and support. Then, following the historic December 1956 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee the political and work enthusiasm of our working people reached an all-time high, with the great upsurge in the building of socialism and the start of the great Chollima Movement. In this revolutionary upsurge, the cooperativization of agriculture and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry were already completed by 1958 and the socialist relations of production became predominant in town and country. All fields of the national economy were characterized by successive innovations, and socialist construction forged ahead apace. 432 === [PDF page 441] === Our Party has achieved great successes in socialist construction by vigorously pushing ahead with the technical, cultural and ideological revolutions while steadily developing the Chollima Movement of the working people. We have built the firm foundations of an independent national economy. The base of our own heavy industry has been created with the machine-building industry as its core; light industry has also made rapid progress. Our agriculture has been transformed into a solid socialist rural economy and is equipped with new technology. Great achievements have been recorded in all spheres of science, education, public health, culture and art. The problems of food, clothing and housing for the people have been mainly solved, while their overall material and cultural life has been improved. Immediately after the armistice, the enemy boasted that north Korea would be unable to rise to its feet again even in a hundred years. But in ten years after the war, our people, under Party leadership, have not only reconstructed the economy upon the heaps of ashes, but have also eliminated backwardness and poverty, which were their historical heritage, turned their country into a socialist industrial-agricultural state and built up the towns and villages to be more beautiful than ever. This proves the victory of the Marxist-Leninist line of our Party in the socialist revolution and construction, and testifies to the correctness of our Party’s economic policy. The ten postwar years were a decade of great socio-economic changes and construction; it was a decade of brilliant victories in the struggle for the organizational and ideological consolidation of the Party. In that same period our Party held its Third and Fourth Congresses. These congresses hold important places in the history of our Party, and they played a great part in strengthening the Party and speeding up the socialist revolution and construction. In the postwar period our Party was not only seasoned in the struggle for socialist revolution and construction but it was also further consolidated in the struggle against all shades of opportunism. 433 === [PDF page 442] === Postwar reconstruction in our country was carried out in the midst of the fierce struggle to combat continued subversive activities of the US imperialists and their lackeys and to overcome immeasurable economic difficulties and privations. As the socialist revolution got into its stride the class struggle grew particularly bitter. This struggle in our society could only be reflected in the Party as well. Thus, various opportunist tendencies appeared inside the Party, which fought them energetically. The struggle against factionalism to strengthen Party unity, against dogmatism to establish Juche, and against modern revisionism to safeguard the purity of Marxism-Leninism, was the main battle we waged in the postwar years on the ideological front inside the Party. Unity of thought and will in its ranks is the life and soul of the Marxist-Leninist party. The struggle for the unity and cohesion of the Party posed a particularly important question for us. The composition of the Party ranks was inevitably complex because of its short history and its formation by bringing together the communist groups which had been operating separately in different areas and because of its rapid development into a mass political party through the merger with the New Democratic Party. Thus, the Party has always paid the greatest attention to furthering unity and cohesion in its ranks. We have protected the unity of the Party while expanding and strengthening its nuclear ranks and tirelessly educating and rallying all its members. Whenever our Party came up against difficulties and trials, however, a small number of unsound elements deteriorated and took the anti-Party road, while the staunch Party members making up the majority of the membership became increasingly tempered and united in the struggle. In the crucial years of the Fatherland Liberation War, too, those who wished to capitulate and defeatists, as well as liquidationists who sought to disorganize the Party appeared and carried on anti-Party factional activities, which the Party had to fight and overcome. In the difficult years of postwar reconstruction, anti-Party factional 434 === [PDF page 443] === elements again made an appearance. The inveterate factionalists who had acquired the habit of factional strife in the past, plus some unreliable elements, took advantage of the complex situation, so presenting the Party with a challenge. Our Party launched a vigorous ideological struggle to unmask and crush the conspiratorial activities of the anti-Party factionalists and to root out factionalism by mobilizing the Party organizations and the rank-and-file members. We fought against everything which was detrimental to the Party’s unity and strove to establish the Party’s ideological system throughout the Party, from the Central Committee down to the cells. The struggle for Party unity and cohesion was unthinkable without the struggle for establishing Juche. To oppose dogmatism and establish Juche was one of the most important questions in building up the Party’s ideological system, in ensuring its correct leadership and successfully promoting all aspects of our revolutionary struggle and construction. Our Party has always adopted a creative position in rejecting dogmatism and applying Marxism-Leninism, in keeping with our country’s historical conditions and national characteristics, while holding fast to the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism. The Party has always opposed dependence on others and maintained its independent position, displaying the spirit of self-reliance and solving its own problems entirely on its own responsibility, while constantly strengthening solidarity and cooperation with the international revolutionary forces. Juche in ideology, independence in politics, self-support in economy and self-reliance in national defence–this is our Party’s consistent position and line. Dogmatism exerted considerable influence within the Party in the earlier period because of the complex circumstances and conditions in which our country found itself and because many of our cadres had limited Marxist-Leninist knowledge and little experience in the revolutionary struggle. The Party overcame dogmatism step by step, through persevering education and ideological struggle. 435 === [PDF page 444] === But some obstinate dogmatists infected with flunkeyism towards great powers did harm to our work, persistently obstructing the implementation of the correct Party lines and policies. The factionalists who appeared in our Party were, without exception, dogmatists and flunkeyists. The dogmatism of these elements reached a peak after the war. They not only shut their eyes to the realities of their country but also ignored the history, culture and revolutionary traditions of their own people and fell into national nihilism in their scorn for all things Korean and their exaggerated praise for all that was foreign. They simply looked to others and tried to imitate blindly what they did, instead of doing their work in keeping with the lines and policies of their own Party, and sought only to rely on others in everything, lacking faith in the strength of their own country. The harm done by dogmatism and flunkeyism towards great powers became intolerable. In 1955, therefore, our Party laid down a firm policy to oppose dogmatism and establish Juche in all spheres, and went on to wage a resolute struggle to carry it through. It thoroughly explained to its cadres and members the danger of a dogmatic ideological trend, and conducted dynamic ideological work to help them to closely study its lines and policies, the creative application of Marxism-Leninism to Korean reality, and to work in conformity with them always. At the same time, we have tried to intensify the study of our country’s history, traditions and conditions among all Party members and working people and to cultivate the habit of solving all problems in line with the actual conditions in our country and the principle of self-reliance. As modern revisionism raised its head in the international communist movement, our fight against factionalism and dogmatism came to be combined with the struggle against it. Revisionism in our country was fostered by the international trend of revisionism; it was smuggled in from outside by the factionalists and dogmatists. The modern revisionists, spreading illusions about US imperialism among other things, tried to hinder our Party and people from 436 === [PDF page 445] === resolutely fighting against it. They were also against the socialist revolution in our country, alleging that it was “premature”; they were opposed to our Party’s line of socialist industrialization, particularly the line of building an independent national economy; they went so far as to bring economic pressure to bear upon us, thereby inflicting tremendous losses on the building of socialism in our country. The aim of the modern revisionists was, in the final analysis, to make our Party betray Marxism-Leninism and revolution, give up the anti-US struggle and take the road of Right capitulationism, just as they were doing. Holding aloft the revolutionary banner of Marxism-Leninism in opposition to the machinations of the revisionists, our Party steadfastly carried out its correct lines and policies, and further intensified ideological work internally so as to lay bare the true nature of modern revisionism and defend the purity of Marxism-Leninism. The attack of the opportunists on our Party became most pronounced around the years 1956-57. At that time a handful of anti-Party factionalists and obstinate dogmatists lurking in our Party challenged it, teaming up with each other on a revisionist basis, with the backing of outside forces. They not only slandered the lines and policies of our Party, but also conspired to overthrow its leadership. This coincided with the unprecedented reactionary offensive of the US imperialists and their puppets against the northern half of the country. But they had all made a gross miscalculation. Our Workers’ Party–which had sprung from the deep roots of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, been seasoned in the hard-fought revolutionary struggle, had blood ties with the masses of the people and enjoyed their unqualified support and trust–could not be shaken by the sly stratagems of the handful of anti-Party elements or by any outside force. Relying on the unanimous support of its members and the masses, our Party launched decisive counterattacks against the reactionary offensive of the enemy and the attacks of opportunists of all varieties. While carrying on a vigorous inner-Party ideological battle to smash opportunism and launching an all-people political struggle against the 437 === [PDF page 446] === counter-revolutionary plots of the enemy, the Party inspired and encouraged the working people to strive for a fresh upsurge in socialist construction. This upsurge and the Chollima Movement began in the course of the Party-wide, all-people ideological and political struggles; they enabled us to smash the attacks by all sorts of enemies at home and abroad completely. We not only frustrated the reactionary offensive of US imperialism and its stooges, but also emerged victorious in the struggle against factionalism, dogmatism and modern revisionism. While the Fatherland Liberation War was the most severe struggle against the aggressive imperialist forces and the domestic reactionary forces in the 20-year history of our Party, the struggle against opportunism after the war was the most intense battle against the enemy within the communist movement itself. Through this struggle our Party was further seasoned and consolidated, gaining a wealth of experience and learning many lessons. We strengthened our revolutionary positions more firmly and opened up a broader avenue for the work of revolution and construction in our country. Our Party decisively crushed the factionalism which had done tremendous harm to the communist movement all through its history, thus achieving a firm unity of thought and purpose within its ranks. The Party defended its Marxist-Leninist revolutionary line against modern revisionism, rooted out dogmatism and established Juche thoroughly. Our cadres and Party members attained higher levels of Marxist-Leninist awareness. They learned to recognize all shades of opportunism contrary to Marxism-Leninism in the international communist movement and to apply the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism to the realities of our country better. Furthermore, the national pride and spirit of socialist patriotism of Party members and working people were heightened, while their creativity and talents were given wider scope. The prestige of the Party among the masses became unchallengeable and the unity of the Party and the people grew 438 === [PDF page 447] === stronger than ever. All this marked a historic turn in the development of our Party and revolution. Our Party concentrated its efforts on the struggle to carry through its mass line on the basis of further consolidating the unity of its ranks and strengthening its leadership in all spheres. The revolution is a cause for the people and of the people. The consistent mass line of our Party is to serve the masses faithfully, to go amongst them to educate, transform and unite them, as well as to draw courage and wisdom from them and mobilize the broad masses for carrying out the tasks of revolution. The rapid progress of socialist construction has required a more thoroughgoing implementation of the Party’s mass line. To put the mass line into practice, we must constantly improve the Party’s work system and methods while steadily increasing political and ideological awareness among the masses. We have done a great deal of organizational and ideological work to establish a revolutionary system of work throughout the Party and to help the officials rid themselves of bureaucracy and learn the revolutionary work method of relying on the masses. At the same time, the Party further strengthened mass education to arm all the working people with the revolutionary spirit of the working class. We turned Party work into work with people and energetically carried on communist education among the working people, emphasizing class education, along with education in the Party policies and the revolutionary traditions. The Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method is the embodiment and development of the revolutionary mass line, a tradition of our Party, adapted to the new realities of socialist construction. The essence of the Chongsanri method is that the higher body helps the lower, and the superior assists those under him and always visits the workplaces in order to have a good understanding of actual conditions and find correct solutions to problems, gives priority to political work, work with people, in all undertakings and enlists the conscious 439 === [PDF page 448] === enthusiasm and initiative of the masses so as to ensure the fulfilment of revolutionary tasks. This is not only a powerful method of work for carrying out immediate revolutionary tasks successfully and substantially, but a powerful educational method for raising the ideological and political level and practical capacity of officials and for revolutionizing the masses. The spread of the Chongsanri method brought changes in the work of Party and state bodies and economic organs, while their officials’ level of guidance was also improved considerably. Since the Chongsanri method was accepted by the masses, the work of educating and remoulding the working people has become the job of the working people themselves and developed into their mass movement for ideological transformation. Thus, the implementation of the mass line and the spread of the Chongsanri method further raised the leading role of the Party and rapidly expanded and strengthened our revolutionary ranks, giving a more powerful impetus to the great upsurge of socialist construction and to the Chollima Movement. Comrades, our Party has led the people to establish an advanced, socialist system and build a solid, independent national economy in the northern half of the country. This constitutes an asset guaranteeing a happy life to our people and further prosperity to our society. In conditions of direct confrontation with the aggressive forces of US imperialism, our Party has carried on peaceful economic construction, always in a correct proportion to defence construction. The Party has done a great deal to reinforce the People’s Army, arm the entire people and turn the whole country into a fortress, and has thus adopted a self-defence position that is firm enough to make the country and revolution safe from enemy encroachment. Our Party has also built up powerful revolutionary ranks in the north. More than 1,600,000 Party members are united in the Party ranks, and the entire people are knit together around the Party. Our Party members are revolutionaries grown up and tempered in the struggles against Japanese and US imperialism, in the fight for the democratic and socialist revolutions, and in the course of the great rise 440 === [PDF page 449] === of socialist construction and the grand Chollima advance; they are Red soldiers of our Party who are loyal to it and to the revolution. Our people have been tested in the crucible of revolutionary struggle; they are a revolutionary people who, from their own experience in life-or-death combat, have boundless faith in the Party and are wholly determined to attain the cause of socialism and communism along the road indicated by the Party. Invincible are our revolutionary ranks fighting on firmly united under the leadership of our Party, and this is the decisive factor in all our victories. Today our revolutionary base has been consolidated politically, economically and militarily, and our socialist country is growing more prosperous with every passing day. We can confidently say that we have stored up great strength in the north–enough to build a developed socialist society and achieve the reunification of the country and the nationwide victory of the revolution. Such is the main summary of the revolutionary achievements that our Party has scored in its 20 years of leadership of the people. Comrades, Our Party always regards the revolution and construction in the northern half of the country as part of the Korean revolution and the north as the revolutionary base for attaining the cause of national liberation throughout the country. While steadily driving ahead with the revolution and fortifying the revolutionary base in the northern half of the country, the Party has untiringly endeavoured to support the revolutionary struggle of the people in south Korea, liberate it from the yoke of US imperialism and achieve the reunification of the country. To this day, more than 20 years after the defeat of Japanese imperialism, the south Korean people have not yet been freed from the 441 === [PDF page 450] === yoke of imperialism; they remain subjected to colonial and feudal oppression and exploitation under US imperialist domination. The US imperialists, after occupying south Korea, set themselves up as new colonial rulers there in place of the Japanese imperialists. Ever since they crawled into south Korea, they have been trying to reduce it not merely to the status of a colony but also to a military base for establishing their domination over the whole of Korea and for committing aggression in the Far East and Asia. This objective has given rise to all the policies of US imperialism in south Korea over the past 20 years. In essence, US imperialist domination over south Korea is in no way different from the previous rule of Japanese imperialism. The only difference, if any, is that the Japanese imperialists ruled Korea through a governor-general before, while the US imperialists dominate south Korea today with more sophisticated neocolonialist methods, with the puppet regime as a tool. The so-called “government” of south Korea serves as a screen for “legalizing” the US imperialists’ military occupation and for covering up their colonial rule; it is playing the role as a pliant tool for executing the aggressive policy of US imperialism. The US imperialists took over full power in south Korea, and completely subordinated all of its political, economic, cultural and military spheres to their aggressive ends. Thus, south Korea has become a colony and military base of US imperialism in every way. The revolution in south Korea is an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution resulting from the contradictions between two forces, namely, the US imperialist aggressive forces and their accomplices–landlords, comprador capitalists and reactionary bureaucrats–on the one hand, and the workers, peasants, intellectuals, young people and students and people of other classes and strata in south Korea on the other; it is an integral part of the Korean revolution as a whole. The south Korean people, inspired by the great successes scored by the people in the north in the revolution and construction and by their powerful support, have fought heroically over the past 20 years against 442 === [PDF page 451] === the US imperialists and their stooges for the victory of the south Korean revolution and for the country’s reunification. The downfall of Japanese imperialism was immediately followed, in south Korea as in north Korea, by a volcanic outburst of the revolutionary desires of the masses and the rapid growth of the patriotic, democratic forces. The communists left the underground, and the Communist Party was formed and began to act, while people’s committees, the organs of people’s power, were set up all over south Korea on the initiative of the people. The south Korean people repeatedly waged large-scale battles for democratic changes against the colonial enslavement policy of US imperialism and the national partition policy of its minions. The successive national-salvation resistance struggles of the south Korean people, including the struggle waged by the Hwasun coal miners in Kwangju and the peasant riot on Haui Island in August 1946, the September general strike of the south Korean workers and the October Popular Resistance, the February 7 struggle in 1948 for national salvation, the fight against the May 10 separate elections and the soldiers’ mutiny in Ryosu dealt serious blows against the US imperialists’ colonial policy and added a brilliant page to the history of the liberation struggle of the Korean people. However, the revolutionary struggle of the south Korean people was temporarily frustrated and had to undergo a harsh ordeal because of savage repression at the hands of the US imperialists and their stooges and the subversive activities of the spies of US imperialism and factional elements who had wormed their way into the leadership of the Communist Party. Exposed to a pincer attack of their enemies from within and without, the revolutionary forces of south Korea suffered heavy losses, and in 1949 the party organizations were totally destroyed. Even in the extremely difficult circumstances in which the reactionary offensive became more intense and the revolutionary movement temporarily withdrew, the patriotic people in south Korea did not stop fighting. The south Korean communists continued their 443 === [PDF page 452] === struggle underground, going through all manner of hardships and trials. The heroic struggle of the Masan citizens against the fraudulent March 15 elections held in 1960 by the Syngman Rhee “regime” was a sign that the save-the-nation campaign of the south Korean people had entered a new stage. In the April uprising, the people of south Korea toppled the “regime” of Syngman Rhee, a long-time lackey of the US imperialists, dealing another heavy blow to their colonial rule. In south Korea the fighting spirit of the masses against US imperialism and its stooges, for the independent reunification of the country rose even higher after the April uprising. Terror-stricken at this, the US imperialists and their lackeys staged a “military coup” in an attempt to strangle the national-salvation struggle of the south Korean people by fascist suppression. However, the developments in south Korea reveal that the enemy has entirely failed to curb the struggle of the people, even through military suppression. The patriotic youth and students and people in south Korea fought heroically against the “ROK-Japan talks” in defiance of harsh repression by the traitorous Park Chung Hee clique and are courageously fighting on to shatter the “ROK-Japan agreements”. The struggle of June 3,1964 and the militant demonstration staged again in August this year were patriotic anti-imperialist, anti-fascist campaigns to oppose the aggressive policy of the US and Japanese imperialists and to overthrow the traitorous clique. Today the US imperialists are making frantic efforts to cope with the crisis of their colonial rule and the Park Chung Heeites, their puppets, are compelled to keep south Korea in a state of siege all the time. The US imperialists and their stooges, preposterously attributing this crisis to a “communist threat from the north”, are trying to divert the attention of the people. However, no one today believes such propaganda; the people have come to the realization that the crisis in south Korea is explicitly the product of US colonial rule itself. 444 === [PDF page 453] === Park Chung Hee and his clique, trying to cover up their traitorous acts under the pretext of “anti-communism”, are posing as nationalists. But this trick of theirs will not work and will never conceal the fact that they are tools of US and Japanese imperialism. The antagonism between us and the south Korean puppets is not one between communists and nationalists but one between patriots and quislings. No amount of repression and trickery will allow the US imperialists and their stooges to check the south Korean people’s anti-US struggle for national salvation, which is constantly growing in scope and strength. Fascist repression by the US imperialists and their hirelings in south Korea only leads to the growing awareness and further tempering of the people and to the strengthening of the revolutionary forces which will eventually bury the colonial system of the US imperialists. The people in south Korea have come to realize all the more keenly that the replacement of one puppet of US imperialism by another will get them nowhere, so long as US imperialist colonial domination continues, and that the winning of genuine freedom and liberation and the country’s reunification will be possible only with the expulsion of the US imperialist aggressors and the complete liquidation of their colonial rule, only when the people take power into their own hands. Furthermore, the south Korean people have become increasingly convinced that freedom and liberation must be won through the struggle of the people themselves and that if the masses of the people unite and courageously rise in arms, they will succeed in defeating even the strongest enemy. This is the most valuable lesson the south Korean people have learned, at the cost of their blood, in the course of the past 20 years of struggle. In south Korea today the mass struggle of the people is growing in scope and organization. They are gradually turning the spearhead of their struggle against the chief enemy, US imperialism, while further increasing actions against the puppet regime and against landlords, comprador capitalists and reactionary bureaucrats. In the course of the struggle, the ranks of revolutionaries armed with Marxism-Leninism 445 === [PDF page 454] === swell, while the class awakening of workers and peasants grows. The revolutionaries in south Korea have reached into the broad masses including the workers, peasants and student youth and been closely united with them, and are playing an active role in the mass movement in south Korea. Before long, the revolutionaries in south Korea will emerge as a powerful leading force of the people there by extensively developing their revolutionary organizations and uniting the masses of the people from all walks of life under the banner of anti-US national salvation. The revolution in south Korea has to deal with a strong enemy armed to the teeth, and it still has a hard road to travel. By enduring all trials and continuously expanding and strengthening their revolutionary ranks, however, the revolutionaries in south Korea will eventually build up a revolutionary force powerful enough to crush counter-revolutionary violence, and lead the people to victory in the people’s democratic revolution against the US imperialist aggressors and their lackeys. The south Korean people have a tradition of brave opposition to foreign aggressors and internal reactionary forces. The magnificent fighting spirit displayed by them, in conjunction with all the Korean people in numerous patriotic and revolutionary struggles, including the Imjin Patriotic War, the Kabo Peasant War, the March 1 Independence Movement, the June 10 Independence Struggle and the Kwangju Student Movement, shines brilliantly in our country’s history. The people in south Korea, with such a glorious battle tradition and toughened in their fight for national salvation against the US imperialists and their henchmen, will certainly obtain a great victory in their difficult revolutionary struggle. The south Korean people are not alone in their struggle. They have a powerful revolutionary base in the north and enjoy the active support of its people. Our Party and all the people in the northern half of the country will do everything in their power to support the revolutionary struggle of the people in south Korea and will resolutely fight beside them for the complete liberation and independence of our country. 446 === [PDF page 455] === When the people in south Korea emerge victorious in the revolution and take power into their own hands, our country will be reunified by the joint strength of the socialist forces in the north and the democratic forces in the south. We are firmly convinced that the revolutionaries and patriots of south Korea will carry out with credit the historic mission assigned to them in the struggle of the entire Korean people for the reunification of the country and the nationwide triumph of the revolution, by heroically fighting on to victory in the south Korean revolution with the powerful assistance of the people in the northern half of the country. Comrades, The revolutionary struggle of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people, as a link in the chain of the international revolutionary movement, is developing in close connection with the joint struggle of people the world over for peace, democracy, national independence and socialism. Our Party, which has always believed that the prime internationalist duty of the communists and people of Korea is to achieve the Korean revolution successfully, has fought for its victory and made every effort to strengthen the international solidarity of our revolution and promote the development of the international revolutionary movement as a whole. It is the consistent policy of our Party in the field of international affairs to protect the unity of the socialist camp and the solidarity of the international communist movement, to develop the relations of friendship and cooperation with the newly independent states in Asia, Africa and Latin America, to support the anti-imperialist, national-liberation movements of the peoples in these regions and the 447 === [PDF page 456] === revolutionary movements of the peoples of all countries, and to struggle for world peace and the progress of mankind against the imperialist policy of aggression and war. Determined struggle against imperialism headed by US imperialism is at the present time the first criterion by which to distinguish the revolutionaries and the revolutionary parties from opportunist schools of all kinds. World peace cannot be maintained nor can the struggle for national liberation and independence or for democracy and socialism be won unless there is a fight against the aggressive forces of imperialism. The policy of peaceful coexistence of countries with different social system is only one aspect of the foreign policy of the socialist countries, and the anti-imperialist struggle should never be influenced by this, nor weakened by it. All the peace-loving people of the world as well as the peoples of the socialist countries should fight against imperialism, US imperialism above all, and firmly unite in this struggle. Our Party and people will continue to fight resolutely against the aggressive forces of imperialism headed by US imperialism. We will unite with all the forces that are opposed to US imperialism, support the struggle of the peoples of all countries against it, and strive to strengthen solidarity with the international revolutionary forces and win their support in the anti-US struggle of our people. In particular, we will fight in firm unity with all the revolutionary anti-imperialist forces in Asia in order to drive the aggressive forces of US imperialism out of the southern half of our country and every part of Asia. Asia, Africa and Latin America have today become the front lines of the fiercest opposition to imperialism. The communists and the progressive people of the whole world ought to have deep concern for the anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggle of the peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and give it positive support. The Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people, always standing firmly by the oppressed nations, have actively supported and encouraged their liberation struggle and fought hand in hand with 448 === [PDF page 457] === them against imperialism and old and new colonialism. The solidarity between our people and the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America is strengthened with each passing day, and the relations of friendship and cooperation between our country and the countries in these regions are developing steadily. This clearly proves the correctness of the foreign policy of our Party which is true to the common revolutionary cause of the peoples and strives for genuine friendship, unity and mutual cooperation with the peoples of the fighting countries. It is a pressing issue in the anti-imperialist, national-liberation struggle at the present time to curb and frustrate the invasion of Viet Nam by the US imperialists and to assist the Vietnamese people in their struggle against aggression. The US imperialists are escalating their aggressive war by introducing more troops and weapons into South Viet Nam, and are savagely bombing the territory of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. They are recklessly attempting to extend the war not only in Indo-China but also to other large areas of Asia. This is a challenge to the socialist camp and to the peoples of all countries which want peace, independence and progress. The Vietnamese people are not only waging a brave war for the complete liberation and independence of their own country, but are also fighting in defence of the socialist camp and for peace in Asia and the world at the cost of their blood. It is the sacred duty of the countries of the socialist camp and the peace-loving states and peoples all over the world to oppose the US imperialists’ criminal war of aggression in Viet Nam with resolution and to support and encourage the Vietnamese people in their just struggle. Our Party and people regard the struggle of the Vietnamese people as their own and are doing their utmost to support the Vietnamese people. We will continue to give steadfast support and encouragement to the heroic Vietnamese people in their struggle, and will make common cause for all time with our Vietnamese brothers in this. 449 === [PDF page 458] === In the future, just as in the past, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people will endeavour to strengthen solidarity with the peoples of different countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and actively support them in their struggle against imperialism and colonialism. Our Party and people will unite with the peoples of all countries fighting for peace and progress and will support their struggle. To strengthen the international revolutionary forces and promote the anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples with vigour, it is essential to combat modern revisionism. Its most harmful aspect lies in the fact that, scared by the nuclear blackmail policy of the US imperialists, it kneels before them, gives up the struggle against imperialism and compromises with it, disarms the people by spreading illusions about imperialism, restrains and undermines the liberation struggle of the oppressed nations and the exploited people. Revisionism still remains the main danger in the international communist movement today. Our Party will continue to fight resolutely against modern revisionism in defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism. We will categorically reject Rightist capitulationism and continue our struggle, holding higher the revolutionary banner of Marxism-Leninism, the banner of struggle against imperialism and for national liberation and socialism. It is, after all, for the purpose of carrying through the revolution in their own country successfully and promoting the development of the revolutionary movement in the international arena that the communists oppose all brands of Right and “Left” opportunism, including revisionism. Proceeding from the interests of the Korean revolution and of the international revolutionary movement, our Party combats modern revisionism and dogmatism from an independent and principled stand. The Workers’ Party of Korea will continue to wage a principled struggle for the unity of the socialist camp and the solidarity of the international communist movement on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism and the principles 450 === [PDF page 459] === set out in the 1957 Declaration and the 1960 Statement. Our Party will always fight in defence of the socialist camp as a whole and use its efforts to strengthen friendship and unity with all the socialist countries and Communist and Workers’ Parties. We are communists fighting against imperialism in the cause of the revolution. The unity of the socialist camp and the solidarity of the international communist movement are unthinkable without the struggle against imperialism. The socialist countries and the Communist and Workers’ Parties should, first of all, take concerted action in the struggle against imperialism and, particularly at the present time, combine their efforts in opposing the aggression of the US imperialists in Viet Nam and in supporting the Vietnamese people. This will consolidate the international anti-imperialist front and give greater encouragement to the fighting people of Viet Nam and, further, will open the way for the genuine unity and solidarity of our ranks. Our Party will endeavour to develop a common struggle together with the fraternal parties and countries in opposing imperialism headed by US imperialism and in supporting the revolutionary movement of the people, and to strengthen our unity through this struggle. The Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people, holding aloft the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, will continue to fight stoutly for peace, democracy, national independence and for the victory of the cause of socialism in unity with the peoples of the socialist countries, with the international working class, the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and with all the progressive people of the world. Comrades, Our Party has led the Korean revolution correctly and guided our 451 === [PDF page 460] === people to great victories by creatively applying Marxism-Leninism to the realities of our country. And yet, our victories, however great they may be, signify no more than that we have laid the foundation for further advancing the revolution and achieving fresh triumphs. We are now on the road of revolution. We still have a long way to go and much work to do. We shoulder the heavy burden of carrying out the national-liberation, democratic revolution in south Korea and accomplishing the cause of socialism and communism on a nationwide scale, and are in duty bound to fight for the triumph of communism all over the world in company with the fraternal Marxist-Leninist parties. We must constantly move on to fresh victories and continue with the revolution without resting on our laurels. The greatest task before us at the moment is to free south Korea from the yoke of US imperialism and achieve the reunification of the country by speeding up socialist construction in the northern half of the country and consolidating our revolutionary base even more, by supporting the revolutionary struggle of the people in south Korea in every way and continuously reinforcing solidarity with the international revolutionary forces. To this end, we must strengthen the Party, reinforce the revolutionary ranks and promote all our activities in the revolution and construction with greater determination. We must carry forward the glorious history and revolutionary traditions of our Party, enrich its fighting experiences still further and consolidate and expand its achievements in struggle. We must defend the unity of thought and will in the Party ranks, constantly strengthen the ties between the Party and the people and continually improve the leading role of the Party. The most important thing in strengthening the Party is to guarantee that its members lead a sound Party organizational life. Party organizational life constitutes the basic condition for educating and uniting Party members and leading them to carry on the struggle at all times in accordance with a single discipline and will. Party cell life 452 === [PDF page 461] === should be strengthened and a democratic tone be promoted in Party life so that all Party members acquire a high degree of Party spirit, class spirit and popular spirit. All our Party members, as honourable fighters of the Workers’ Party, must faithfully execute the duties which it allocates to them and struggle always in the interests of the Party, the working class and the people with complete devotion. Work with people is basic in Party work. The Party bodies and organizations should, above all, strengthen work with cadres even more. They must know the cadres well and educate them patiently at all times, thereby solidly building up their ranks. They must place the right cadre in the right post and keep him there; they must help all the cadres improve their qualifications and guide and assist them in their work so that they can fulfil their assignments properly. Our cadres must for ever bear in mind the great confidence the Party and the people place in them; they must always think as the Party does, conduct their work in accordance with the Party’s policies and work hard to carry them through to the end. The Party organizations must continue to give serious attention to ideological work. Education in the general principles of Marxism-Leninism and in Party policy has to be intensified, communist education with class education as the main content and education in revolutionary traditions must be carried out in a more concentrated way among Party members and working people. We must wage a steady and constant fight against all brands of opportunist ideas, including modern revisionism and dogmatism. In this way we should ensure that our Party members and working people acquire the Marxist-Leninist world outlook, increase their class awareness and arm themselves firmly with hatred of imperialism and the exploiting classes, and with the spirit of socialist patriotism and proletarian internationalism. All our Party members must be trained to become communist revolutionaries; the revolutionary spirit, organization and fighting capacity of our working class must be promoted even more; and our peasants and intellectuals must be further revolutionized. Our Party is leading the people to build socialism. Our Party 453 === [PDF page 462] === members and working people must become not only indomitable revolutionary fighters but also able builders of socialism; they must not only be steadfast in the revolutionary struggle but also proficient in economic construction. It is impossible to build socialism without possessing economic and technical knowledge. The Party organizations must step up the struggle for acquiring economic knowledge and new techniques among Party members and working people. Marxist-Leninist economic theory and advanced science and technology must be applied and continuously developed to suit the actual conditions of our country. We are building socialism in confrontation with the US imperialists, in circumstances under which our country is divided. Today, the US imperialists are increasingly running amuck throughout the world, particularly in Asia. Meanwhile, the revolutionary struggle of the people in south Korea is steadily gaining ground, and the anti-US struggle of the peoples is fierce in Asia and many other areas. In this situation we must thoroughly implement the Party’s unvarying line of increasing our defence capabilities in every way while promoting socialist construction to the maximum. We must always correctly combine economic construction with defence upbuilding. It would be a mistake to neglect economic construction for fear of the outbreak of war, just as it would be a mistake to emphasize economic construction alone and fail to make preparations against a war. In anticipation of possible war provocation by the imperialists and their puppets, full preparations must be made to cope with them, while, at the same time, stepping up economic construction with energy, by making use of all conditions and possibilities of peaceful construction. Socialist economic construction is an important revolutionary task facing us today. Economic construction not only increases the wealth of the state, society and people and strengthens the country’s material and technical foundations, but also makes it possible to educate and train the people through work. Proper economic construction is vital in order to promote the welfare of the people, unite them more closely, 454 === [PDF page 463] === consolidate, expand and build up the victories already gained in the revolution. The steady increase of our economic potential is indispensable to the greater inspiration of the people of south Korea and to firmer support for their revolutionary struggle. Moreover, we alone bear the burden of maintaining sufficient military power to cope with the huge military force of the US army stationed in south Korea and the puppet army, which the US imperialists continue to reinforce by investing hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Under such conditions, to continue to strengthen the foundations of our independent economy is a prerequisite both for assuring stable living standards for the people and increasing defence capabilities. We must continue our strong advance so that we can attain the magnificent goal of the Seven-Year Plan, our immediate assignment in the economic construction of socialism. The most important thing here is to avoid the dispersion of capital construction projects and carry them out in a concentrated manner and on a priority basis. To prevent the tying-up of state funds we must make sure that the projects already begun are finished on time and that investments yield rapid results. At the same time technological innovation must be stepped up in all sectors of the national economy. Our technological level is still low; the quality of goods is inferior while production costs are high. We must try very hard to speed up technological development, raise the productivity of labour, economize in materials and lower their consumption per unit of output. We must also maintain our equipment well, prepare the technical conditions effectively, provide raw materials and other supplies smoothly, and improve and tighten labour administration so as to put an end to fluctuations in production and so allow it to function normally. In this way we should be able to produce and construct everything better, at lower cost and in greater quantities. The Taean system of work is an excellent form of socialist economic management created by our Party. By applying the system thoroughly, all our economic organs and enterprises should bring the 455 === [PDF page 464] === creative powers and talents of the masses into full play in economic construction, and manage the economy in a more scientific and rational way. It is important to protect and take care of the wealth already created and assiduously manage all aspects of the economy, while constantly increasing the wealth of the state and society. So far we have done a great deal in the way of construction and made the country more beautiful and prosperous. All this is the fruit of our people’s sweat and blood, and a precious asset for their happy life. We must cherish and take good care of everything–factories, enterprises, railways, rolling stock, harbours, vessels, irrigation facilities, schools, hospitals, clubhouses, public buildings, dwellings and farmland, forests, rivers and roads–and see to it that they are used effectively for the well-being of our people. While steadily augmenting the economic potentials of the country through accelerated socialist construction, we must make increased efforts towards the improvement of our defence capabilities. Of vital importance in increasing defence power are thoroughgoing political and ideological preparations to cope with a war. The whole Party and the entire people must oppose all manifestations of indolence and weariness, sharpen vigilance and remain alert at all times. We should never fall prey to pacifism and, above all, we must wage a firm ideological struggle to prevent penetration into our ranks by the ideological trend of the modern revisionists who are afraid of war. Our cadres and Party members must not only become ideologically prepared, but must also acquire military knowledge to cope with modern warfare. Military education is necessary not only for military personnel but for all cadres and Party members alike. Our experiences in the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the Fatherland Liberation War must be systematically studied by all cadres and Party members. We must also learn from other countries’ experiences of revolutionary war and, in particular, make a close study of the current liberation war of the Vietnamese people and revolutionary guerrilla warfare in African and Latin-American countries. 456 === [PDF page 465] === While energetically carrying out political and ideological work to deal with a war, we must strengthen our People’s Army and Worker-Peasant Red Guards and make the all-people defence system more impregnable. Our people must always firmly defend our socialist country and build socialism better with a rifle in one hand and a hammer or a sickle in the other. We do not want war, but we are not afraid of it. If the enemy dares to make an armed attack on us, we will fight back bravely, and we shall smite the aggressor to the end. Our Party and people will meet the forthcoming great revolutionary event with full preparations by strengthening our own revolutionary forces politically, economically and militarily, and they will certainly win a nationwide victory in the revolution. In unity with all the revolutionary forces of the world, we will fight more resolutely against imperialism and old and new colonialism headed by US imperialism, against the imperialist agents and reaction and for the triumph of communism. Comrades, the Workers’ Party of Korea has proved the justice and indestructible vitality of its cause during 20 years of practical struggle. The lines and policies of our Party are correct and they light the road to victory for our people. Our people trust the Party, they are united around it, and are fighting through against all obstacles along the path indicated by the Party. Our victory is certain so long as we have the seasoned leadership of our Marxist-Leninist Party and all the people continue to struggle as one solid mass around the Party. No force on earth can check the advance of our Party and our people. Let us courageously march forward to fresh victories in the cause of Marxism-Leninism, raising high the banner of the Workers’ Party and uniting more firmly around the Party Central Committee. Long live the glorious Workers’ Party of Korea! Long live the heroic Korean people! Long live the banner of ever-victorious Marxism-Leninism! 457 === [PDF page 466] === [Cover/decorative page: plain blue cover]