THE LESSON FROM THE KOREAN WAR: THE US IS NOT ALL-POWERFUL

On June 25, 1950 the United States started the Korean war (1950-1953), looking down upon the newly founded Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. By the end of the Second World War it advocated omnipotence of strength, with the aim of consolidating its postwar position of predominance and carrying out its aggressive foreign policy smoothly.

To have a general idea of this theory it is worth remembering Muccio’s remarks as the first US ambassador to south Korea: Politics is strength. In case of a conflict of strength no means or methods are unjustifiable. Victory is good and defeat is evil.

His remarks reflected the philosophy and attitude towards war of the US that worships strength and regards it as almighty.

As a matter of fact, toward the start of the Korean war, the DPRK’s military and technical forces could not compare with those of the US. Korea had been liberated less than five years ago, and the DPRK founded less than two years ago. To make matters worse, the regular armed forces and defence industry for self-defence were too young. On the other hand, the forces the US shipped into the areas around the Korean peninsula before the war were enormous.

From the end of April 1950, the US, on the pretext of joint exercises of the army, navy and air forces, reinforced its 7^th Fleet with two aircraft carriers, two cruisers and six destroyers, and added three B-26 and B-29 regiments, six pursuit fighter regiments and two transport plane regiments to Japan. And it also reinforced the four divisions under the 8^th Army in Japan with tank, gun, transport and other services, so as to make them fully ready to be hurled to the Korean front any time.

Japanese book Korean War reads in part: Just before the outbreak of the war the US Air Force units stationed in Japan had 595 planes in reserve—375 jet and other fighters, 40 night fighters, 80 bombers, 50 transport planes and 50 communication planes; MacArthur believed that when this air force in the Far East was mobilized, the Korean war would end early.

An American magazine wrote that throughout the US history there was no such an instance that prewar preparations were so perfect. Besides, the US trained the south Korean puppet army into shock brigades and cannon fodder for its soldiers. Korean War Viewed by a Chinese disclosed that Johnson, director of the Korean Affairs Department of the US Economic Cooperation Administration, testified at the House Appropriations Committee on May !9, 1950 that the 100 000-strong south Korean army equipped with the US arms and trained by the American Military Advisory Group was fully ready to enter into operations any time. Roberts, head of the American Military Advisory Group in south Korea, bragged about the strength of the south Korean army on several occasions, saying that it was capable of repulsing a rival at the same level and twice and thrice stronger than it and that it was the finest army among those out of the US.

These are merely part of the arms buildup by the US for the Korean war. It was too obvious that the US was too strong as it had already made atomic bomb, its economic potentialities in the US proper had suffered no damage during WWII and it was the leader of the capitalist world. The imbalance of power on the Korean peninsula was beyond doubt. The DPRK was no match for the US.

However, the military and technical superiority of the US, which had been boasting of its might, was powerless in front of the army and people of the DPRK, who rose up as one fully aware of the justness of their cause. During the Korean war the myth of the strength of the US, which had claimed it had always emerged victorious in the past more than 100 wars, was smashed to atoms. It hurled into the Korean war a huge armed force over two million strong, including one-third of its ground force, one-fifth of its air force and the greater part of its Pacific Fleet, plus troops from 15 vassal states, the south Korean army and the remnants of the former Japanese army, but it could not but sign the Korean Armistice Agreement, which for it was as good as a surrender document, three years after it started the Korean war.

Instead of drawing the lesson from the crushing defeat in the Korea war, the US has for decades schemed to unleash another war. This year, too, it has conducted various war games, the main contents of which were deployment of the US forces stationed in foreign countries and in the US proper in the Korean peninsula and rapid strike against the DPRK. The US is yet to be awake from the dream of omnipotence of strength. It still thinks that if it wields its strength, it can destroy any country and bring it on its knees.

But, the DPRK is not what Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya were. Having inflicted a serious defeat on the US in the Korean war with inferior military equipment, it has increased in every way its capabilities for self-defence for decades amidst the confrontation with the US. It now has nuclear deterrent to cope with the extreme nuclear threat of the US. Today its strategic rockets plus the nuclear deterrent are capable of dealing merciless blows at those who dare provoke it wherever they are.

The US is well advised to be sober in looking at this stark reality. If it unleashes a second Korean war, it would be not only Korean peninsula that would be devastated like in the previous war. The US, where not even a bomb of another country has fallen in its history, would be submerged in a sea of fire. The US is not all-powerful.

KIM JONG UN VISITS TAEDONGGANG COMBINED FRUIT FARM AND TAEDONGGANG COMBINED FRUIT PROCESSING FACTORY

Pyongyang, June 5 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, visited the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm and Taedonggang Combined Fruit Processing Factory together with Ri Sol Ju.

He looked round the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm. He said with deep emotion: "Having come to this farm, I miss great General Kim Jong Il very much and stanza of a song that will he visit the farm again when telling him apple tree flowers are in full bloom comes to my mind."

Commanding a bird's-eye view of a vast expanse of the fruit farm and modern houses and cultural and welfare facilities nestled at every foot of the hill from the observation deck, he said that they looked like a picturesque socialist land of bliss and an ideal land for people. The farm could be successfully built as a large-scale fruit production base thanks to the guidance of leader Kim Jong Il who made devoted efforts to provide the people with more fruits, he noted. He set forth tasks to be fulfilled to boost the fruit production.

Saying that the area under fruit trees created on the farm is vast, he underscored the need to steadily increase the per-hectare yield of fruit in order to decisively boost the fruit production. He also underlined the need to put the production of fruits on a high scientific, modern and intensive basis by increasing the role of the farm and the fruit research field.

He instructed officials to make sure that the relevant units adequately supply to the farm equipment and materials including machines, herbicides and fertilizers as it are the nation's important fruit producing base. Touring the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Processing Factory, he gave an instruction to improve its management. Looking back on the day when he visited the factory, accompanying Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un said only when the factory keeps its production going at a high rate, is it possible to translate the ardent desire of Kim Jong Il to provide greater quantities of processed fruit to the people into a reality.

He instructed officials to make dynamic endeavors to steadily increase the technical skills of the employees, scrupulously manage equipment and improve technical control, boost the production of a variety of processed fruits and ensure the quality and sanitary safety on the highest level. He expressed expectation and belief that all employees of the farm and factory would make energetic efforts to implement the ideas of the party and uphold its policies. He was accompanied by Pak Pong Ju, Hwang Pyong So, Ri Jae Il and Choe Hwi.

BENEVOLENT IMAGE OF KIM IL SUNG

Nearly twenty years have passed since President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founding father of socialist Korea, passed away. However, he is still alive in the memory of the people across the world. What comes first when recollecting the President is his benevolent image with a broad smile.

He always wore a sunny smile. When he visited the countryside, he unceremoniously got together with the farmers, beaming; while visiting factories, he first acquainted himself with living conditions of the workers with a benign smile. Even when he blamed officials for their failures in work, he convinced them patiently of their errors with a generous smile. He broad-mindedly forgave even those who had committed crimes against the country and people and led them to start a fresh life. His smile that made everyone feel at ease and pleasant was the manifestation of his genuine love for and kind feelings towards people.

As he was born with this outstanding personality, he never changed his looks in front of the people, though he had to overcome all kinds of ordeals and hardships, and sorrows and pains beyond imagination while leading the protracted Korean revolution. It is the personal attraction unique to the President to treat everybody generously and take a paternal care of them, always wearing a beaming smile on his face.

The President treated Korean compatriots from south Korea and overseas and also the foreigners so generously and friendly that anybody who met him was attracted by his personality at a breath. Josip Broz Tito, former president of Yugoslavia and one of the initiators of the non-aligned movement, said, “I met many heads of state, but it was only President Kim Il Sung whom I made myself understood and got familiar with as soon as we met.” Attracted by great personality of President Kim Il Sung, Tito visited Korea, travelling a long distance, in his advanced age of 85, though he seldom visited other countries.

President Kim Il Sung charmed with his personality everybody he met, though they had different ideology, political views and beliefs. The chairman of the Asia and Pacific subcommittee of the US House Foreign Relations Committee visited Pyongyang as the first statesman from the hostile country. After meeting President Kim Il Sung he said that the President talked with smile on his face at all times and impressed him as a kind-hearted person. Selig Harrison, senior fellow from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace expressed his impressions of the President after an interview that President Kim Il Sung was a warm-hearted man with strong charisma. Jimmy Carter, former US President, visited DPRK in 1994 and said that he was deeply impressed by President Kim Il Sung and that the talk between them carried on smoothly as the President was of free and modest character. US evangelist Billy Graham, too, said that everybody, once they met him, would be sure of the warm humanity of the President.

Luiser Rinzer, a German woman writer, was so fascinated by the President that she visited DPRK almost every year, praising that the President was a godlike man whether he liked it or not. President Kim Il Sung met foreigners of all strata including heads of party and state, over 70 000 from 136 countries of the world, since the liberation of Korea (August 1945) from the Japanese military occupation  till the last days of his life (July 1994). Those who met Kim Il Sung were in unison to give unstinted praise to his preeminent ideology, outstanding leadership and striking personality that moved everybody.

The benevolent image of President Kim Il Sung is etched deep in the heart of the people all over the world though time passes away.

“WE SERVE THE PEOPLE!”

 “We serve the people!”—this is one of the slogans the Workers’ Party of Korea holds up. The WPK regards it as an invariable principle to put the demands and interests of the people above all else and makes everything it does conform to them.

After the liberation of Korea from the military occupation of Japan (August 15, 1945), the Party carried out an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, during which it enforced the agrarian reform to realize the centuries-old desire of the peasants to have their own land, nationalized major industries to make the workers the masters of factories and enacted the law of sex equality to give the women equal rights with men. It ensured that a dangerous electric arc furnace was blasted off shortly after the country’s liberation when its economic situation was so difficult that every single gramme of iron and steel was counted and the excellent Pyongyang Maternity Hospital was built for women and babies.

The WPK takes full responsibility of the life of the people. It is because the Party has undertaken everything in the interests of the people and on the principle of faithfully serving them that it has a firm grip of public sentiments and enjoys the absolute support of all the people. Over the past several decades the Party has pursued people-oriented policies—enforcing universal free compulsory education and free medical care and building dwelling houses at the state’s expense and supplying them to the people free of charge. The DPRK abolished tax system as early as 40 years ago is a fact next to unbelievable. 

All this is unconceivable apart from the staunch outlook on people of the leaders of the Party. As it was led by President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il who devoted all their lives viewing “The people are my God” as their motto, the Party has been able to be called a mother party by the people.

Once a foreigner asked the President how the DPRK made up for the loss caused by its supply of clothes to all the students and children across the country free of charge. He replied that the loss incurred in doing things for the people is by no means loss and that the greater such loss the better. When he received a report that a large deposit of gold had been found in the area around Mt. Myohyang, a noted scenic spot, he did not approve its mining, saying that it might mar the beautiful scenery of the mountain and the cultural resort for the people.

Chairman Kim Jong Il, too, often stressed that the country should pursue a losing business if it was for the good of the people and that calculation should not be allowed to get in the way of the benefits to be given to the people. When he visited the Samsu Power Station that was under construction in the northern part of the country, he took measures to build houses first for the people living in the area to be inundated prior to the construction of the power station. “We serve the people!” is a slogan he set forth. As the President and the Chairman did, Kim Jong Un, First Secretary of the WPK, also devotes his all to the good of the people.

All his thinking and activities are geared to ensuring that the Korean people, who have remained faithful to the WPK in the face of all manner of difficulties, do not have to tighten their belts again but enjoy all benefits of socialism. Once, after reading a report submitted to him, he wrote on it “Let us serve the people!” What the people prefer; priority should be given to the convenience of the people in doing things; be kind to the people; make this place frequented by many people; nothing should be spared for the people; and make things perfect and provide them to the people—these are questions and advices he often gave to the officials.

When he dropped in at the families of workers and a teacher who had moved into newly-built Changjon Street in downtown Pyongyang, he had unceremonious talks with them, showing meticulous care for their living. Saying that under the socialist system of the DPRK the interests of the people are regarded as top priority and absolute and all the policies of the Party and state are for their good, he posed for a photo with them and presented household utensils to them, wishing them a happy future.

And he never overlooks any infringement on the people’s interests however trifle it may be. When he inspected a pleasure park, he pointed out its poor management and noted that without the spirit of devoted service for the people officials could not be true to the Party’s intention whatever they might do. He sternly criticized the officials, saying that no matter how many of officials there might be, they would be useless if they did not feel a qualm of conscience but insouciant when the pleasure park which is used by the people had come to such a pass, and if they did not value the people.

Led by Kim Jong Un who has a staunch spirit of devoted service for the people, the WPK is now striving to ensure that they enjoy the benefits of socialism as early as possible, holding higher the slogan “We serve the people!”