Paradigm of Internationalism

 “Comrade Kim Il Sung is a genuine proletarian internationalist and a paradigm of communist movement, who defended our Soviet Union at the cost of the blood, with arms, from the aggression of the imperialists in the East.” This was a passage from the congratulatory message made by Iosif Stalin of the former Soviet Union, proposing a toast to President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) on his official visit to Russia in 1949 with the DPRK government delegation.

Kim Il Sung supported with arms the Soviet Union, first socialist state in the world, under the slogan “Let us defend the Soviet Union with arms!” while waging an arduous armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists to liberate his country from their military occupation, without state backing and support from regular armed forces. When the Japanese imperialists provoked armed conflicts against the Soviet Union, including the incidents of Lake Khasan and Khalkin-Gol in 1938 and 1939 respectively, Kim Il Sung saw that the KPRA units launched harassment operations in support of the Soviet Union behind the enemy lines, inflicting great damage on the enemy’s manpower and war materiel and frustrating military transport. By doing so, he rendered great service to the victory of the Soviet army. Kim Il Sung gave active support to Chinese revolutionaries in their anti-Japanese war.

Chen Lei, one of commanding officers of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army (NAJAA), wrote in his memoirs:

“As is well known across the world, Comrade Kim Il Sung’s devotion to the Chinese revolution and people in the whole course of the anti-Japanese revolution was so genuine that we should offer our thousand thanks. President Kim Il Sung, while waging bravely armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists and to liberate the lost country, established brotherly ties with senior officers of the NAJAA and spared no efforts to assist Chinese revolution. Sometimes he unhesitatingly sent commanding officers and soldiers he had trained with loving care and such aid materials as ammunition and uniforms, though it caused difficulty to him.”

Even after Korea’s liberation Kim Il Sung gave unstinted material and spiritual assistance to the Chinese revolutionaries in their struggle against Jiang Jieshi’s Kuomintang army, thus making a decisive contribution to their efforts to overcome the difficulties and create favourable circumstances in Northeast China.

Chairman Mao Zedong stated that Korean comrades helped the Chinese counterparts whenever the latter was in trouble. Zhu De, commander of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the friendship sealed in blood between China and Korea was a good example to be cherished deep in mind of the rising generations.

President Kim Il Sung, notwithstanding the difficult conditions that the Korean people had to build socialism after the Korean war (1950-1953) in constant showdown with the United States, the ringleader of the world imperialism, rendered positive assistance to the countries and peoples of the world in their struggle against imperialism and for independence.

At the outset of the 1960s the United States created the Cuban Missile Crisis in an attempt to crush the Cuban revolution in its bud. The President saw to it that the DPRK expressed full support to and solidarity with the Cuban people and sent all kinds of assistance to them. True to his intention, staff members of the DPRK Embassy and Koreans studying in Cuba prepared themselves for the fight against the US with arms and in the same trench with the Cuban people.

When the Tonkin Gulf Incident was triggered off in August 1964, the President ensured that the DPRK gave selfless assistance to the Vietnamese people struggling against the aggression of the US. He had pilots of the Korean People’s Army dispatched to the Vietnamese front and millions of military uniforms and other materials sent. Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh said that President Kim Il Sung was the saviour who helped Vietnam heart and soul and his real brother.

Out of his noble obligation of internationalism President Kim Il Sung assisted not only Vietnamese but also Cambodian and Laotian people fighting against the aggression of the US, and Egyptian, Syrian and other Arab people struggling against Zionism.

He also clarified orientations and ways for the peoples of Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and other countries in Africa who were engaged in national liberation struggle and rendered all possible aid to them, helping them usher in a new era of freedom and independence in Africa, once called the Dark Continent. Sam Nujoma, first president of the Republic of Namibia, praised that his country owed its independence to President Kim Il Sung and the latter was the great teacher of the Namibian revolution. President Samora Moises Machel of Mozambique, saying that as the great hero Comrade Kim Il Sung showed them the road ahead, the Mozambican people could greet the liberation free from the slavery lot, shouted in admiration that he extended thanks, the thanks of the ancestors together, to the President from the bottom of their heart.

Two decades have passed since President Kim Il Sung passed away, but he is always remembered by the progressive peoples of the world as the paradigm of noble internationalism.