The Spirit of Mt Paektu

There are many nations in the world, and each nation has its own spiritual support. The spiritual support of the Korean people is the spirit of Mt Paektu. 

The spirit of Mt Paektu is an unyielding offensive spirit of braving obstacles and difficulties and a staunch fighting spirit of rising up no matter how often one may fall and fighting it out.

From olden times the Korean people have worshiped Mt Paektu and regarded it as their ancestral mountain. In the past a foreigner, who climbed Mt Paektu, wrote in his article: Mt Paektu is α and Ω of Korea. 

He had in mind that Mt Paektu is both the starting and ending points of Korea. The spirit of Mt Paektu was created at the time when Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) was waging the anti-Japanese war around the mountain, leading the guerillas; the first generation of the Korean revolution cherished this spirit as the core of their ennobling spirits. 

In March 2000, looking around the revolutionary battle sites in the Mt Paektu region, Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), chairman of the National Defense Commission of the DPRK, said that the Korean revolution was rooted in Mt Paektu and the spirit of Korea was the spirit of Mt Paektu. 

The spirit of Mt Paektu reflects the soul and mettle of thoroughgoing independence and the ennobling ideological spirit that runs through the history of the Korean revolution.

In the period between the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the national strength of Korea got deteriorated day by day as the ruling circles of feudal Joson dynasty were steeped in the worship of big countries, and in the end Korea had to ask this or that country to guard its royal palace because it had no proper army. Finally, it had to face the tragedy of national ruin by the Japanese imperialists.

 At that time the weak Koreans could not resist to the foreign forces even though they were bereft of their country, but only deplored their fate with tears and wails.  These Koreans became conscious of the spirit of independence as they heard the gun shots raised by the anti-Japanese guerillas fighting in Mt Paektu, and greeted the liberation of their country by defeating the Japanese imperialists who were boasting of being the “leader” of Asia.

It was because they cherished the spirit of Mt Paektu that the patriots of Korea could achieve the liberation of their country through the armed resistance against the one-million-strong Japanese troops for more than a decade without any backing of a state nor support by a regular army.

With this very spirit, Korea built the first-ever democratic and independent sovereign state in the East and created by dint of the Korean-style art of war the myth of defeating the imperialists boasting the “strongest” in the world.

After that Korea carried the postwar rehabilitation and socialist construction by the efforts of its own people and established independent, self-supporting and self-defensive socialism in conformity with its reality. 

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, said: The blizzards of Mt Paektu are the real taste of the mountain; the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu, reflects the noble spirit our army and people should always cherish in their hearts; if we cherish this spirit, we have nothing to be afraid of in the world and we have nothing we cannot do.

The spirit of Mt Paektu regards national independence and national self-respect as the lifeblood, and shows no mercy or forgiveness for the aggressive forces.

With this very spirit, the Korean people are waging an offensive for a frontal attack to achieve a breakthrough in confrontation with the hostile forces that are trying to stamp out their country’s rights to independence, existence and development politically, militarily and economically.

DPRK and June 19

On June 19, 1964, 56 years ago, Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, started working on the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

Since then, radical turns were brought about in the work of the WPK. Kim Jong Il developed the Party into an ideologically integrated whole.

In those days, when he started working on its Central Committee, leadership authority of the leaders of the ruling parties of the socialist countries was being abused and they were experiencing difficulties and hardships due to the manoeuvres by the modern revisionists.

Kim Jong Il raised the Juche idea authored by President Kim Il Sung, the founder of the WPK, as the invariable guiding ideology of the WPK, and ensured that the ideological unity of the Party was strengthened in every way possible, thus transforming it into an ideologically pure entity, organizationally complete whole and integral whole in action.

When the ruling parties of the socialist countries were dissolved in the late 1990s, he published several works, proving the scientific accuracy and truthfulness of socialism, so as to make the WPK hold high the banner of socialism.  Kim Jong Il developed the WPK into one which has a firm mass foundation.

He ensured that it became a motherly party which assumed the responsibility for the destiny of the masses of the people and took care of them.

Regarding “The people are my God” as his motto, he led all Party organizations and officials to go among the masses to share good times and bad with them, lend their ears to their demands and make devoted efforts for them so as to make the WPK’s policies and lines reflect the demands and aspirations of the people.

Thanks to his benevolent and all-embracing politics, the WPK achieved the single-hearted unity of the leader, Party and people for the first time in history and turned the whole society into a large harmonious socialist family.

As a result, the WPK was developed into a party which took root deep among the masses of the people, an invincible party enjoying absolute support and trust from the people. Kim Jong Il made the WPK acquire the ever-victorious leadership mode. 

 In the wake of collapse of socialism in several countries of the world in the 1990s, the allied imperialist forces imposed vicious sanctions to stifle and isolate the DPRK. In the face of the harshest-ever trials, he administered the unique Songun politics as the basic political mode of socialism and the leadership mode of the WPK, firmly safeguarding the sovereignty and dignity of the country from the manoeuvres of the allied imperialist forces; the DPRK strengthened its self-defence capabilities in every way possible, won victory in the unprecedented anti-imperialist confrontation and struggle to defend socialism and overcame all difficulties, thus laying firm foundations for building a powerful socialist country by dint of army-people unity. His exploits in Party building are carried forward by Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.

Every year the DPRK celebrates June 19 in the same splendid way as it does October 10, the founding day of the WPK. 

Ever-victorious Path

From June 30 to July 2, 1930, President Kim Il Sung of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, then a young revolutionary, presided over a meeting of young revolutionaries of a new generation at Kalun in Changchun County, Jilin Province, northeast China.

In his report The Path of the Korean Revolution, he stressed, on the basis of the lessons of the past anti-Japanese mass struggles, that the Korean people are the masters of the Korean revolution, and that it is the most important for the Korean revolutionaries to adopt a steadfast stand and will to carry out the revolution by drawing on the strength of the Korean people and in conformity with the reality of Korea, clarifying that only then, can they formulate correct lines and policies and achieve the sacred cause of national liberation. 

In this historic report Kim Il Sung advanced the principle of the Juche idea that man is the master of his own destiny and he also has the strength with which to shape his own destiny. 

The meeting discussed many problems including party founding, the line of the anti-Japanese national united front, the character and mission of the Korean revolution and the fundamental standpoint to be maintained by the Korean communists in their struggle, the core of which was the Juche idea. 

Since then the idea was steadily developed and enriched in various stages of the revolution, including the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, and through a difficult and complicated practical struggle. 

Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, published on March 31, 1982 a treatise, titled On the Juche Idea, in which he developed the Juche idea into one philosophical idea with an integrated system of ideas, theory and method. On February 19, 1974, he formulated the Juche idea as Kimilsungism and proclaimed it as the ultimate programme of the WPK to model the whole society on Kimilsungism. 

He led the efforts to firmly arm the Korean people with the Juche idea and transform nature and society in line with the requirements of the Kimilsungism. 

Thanks to the leadership of Chairman Kim Jong Il, who held fast to the Juche idea as the guideline of the Korean revolution, the Korean people came to regard it as their faith and the country was continuously strengthened and developed under the unfurled banner of independence, self-sufficiency and self-reliant defence. 

Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, formulated the Juche idea that was created by Kim Il Sung and developed by Kim Jong Il as Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, and proclaimed it as the ultimate programme of the WPK to model the whole society on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism. 

As the country has advanced under the banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, a politico-ideological power, which remains unperturbed in the face of worldwide political turmoil and of the unprecedented moves by the allied imperialist forces to stifle it, has been built on the land where once the worship of big countries and dogmatism were deeply rooted, and the country, having achieved the status of a strategic state that nobody can ignore, is invariably following the road of advance toward a powerful socialist country. 

As it has achieved the single-hearted unity based on the Juche idea, the country will exalt forever the dignity and prestige of an ideological power.

The Spirit of Mt Paektu

 There are many nations in the world, and each nation has its own spiritual support. The spiritual support of the Korean people is the spirit of Mt Paektu. 

The spirit of Mt Paektu is an unyielding offensive spirit of braving obstacles and difficulties and a staunch fighting spirit of rising up no matter how often one may fall and fighting it out.

From olden times the Korean people have worshiped Mt Paektu and regarded it as their ancestral mountain. In the past a foreigner, who climbed Mt Paektu, wrote in his article: Mt Paektu is α and Ω of Korea. 

He had in mind that Mt Paektu is both the starting and ending points of Korea. The spirit of Mt Paektu was created at the time when Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) was waging the anti-Japanese war around the mountain, leading the guerillas; the first generation of the Korean revolution cherished this spirit as the core of their ennobling spirits. 

In March 2000, looking around the revolutionary battle sites in the Mt Paektu region, Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), chairman of the National Defense Commission of the DPRK, said that the Korean revolution was rooted in Mt Paektu and the spirit of Korea was the spirit of Mt Paektu. 

The spirit of Mt Paektu reflects the soul and mettle of thoroughgoing independence and the ennobling ideological spirit that runs through the history of the Korean revolution.

In the period between the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the national strength of Korea got deteriorated day by day as the ruling circles of feudal Joson dynasty were steeped in the worship of big countries, and in the end Korea had to ask this or that country to guard its royal palace because it had no proper army.

Finally, it had to face the tragedy of national ruin by the Japanese imperialists. At that time the weak Koreans could not resist to the foreign forces even though they were bereft of their country, but only deplored their fate with tears and wails. 

These Koreans became conscious of the spirit of independence as they heard the gun shots raised by the anti-Japanese guerillas fighting in Mt Paektu, and greeted the liberation of their country by defeating the Japanese imperialists who were boasting of being the “leader” of Asia.

It was because they cherished the spirit of Mt Paektu that the patriots of Korea could achieve the liberation of their country through the armed resistance against the one-million-strong Japanese troops for more than a decade without any backing of either a state or support by a regular army.

With this very spirit, Korea built the first-ever democratic and independent sovereign state in the East and created by dint of the Korean-style art of war the myth of defeating the imperialists boasting the “strongest” in the world.

After that Korea carried the postwar rehabilitation and socialist construction by the efforts of its own people and established independent, self-supporting and self-defensive socialism in conformity with its reality. 

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, said: The blizzards of Mt Paektu are the real taste of the mountain; the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu, reflects the noble spirit our army and people should always cherish in their hearts; if we cherish this spirit, we have nothing to be afraid of in the world and we have nothing we cannot do.

The spirit of Mt Paektu regards national independence and national self-respect as the lifeblood, and shows no mercy or forgiveness for the aggressive forces. With this very spirit, the Korean people are waging an offensive for a frontal attack to achieve a breakthrough in confrontation with the hostile forces that are trying to stamp out their country’s rights to independence, existence and development politically, militarily and economically.

DPRK and June 19

 On June 19, 1964, 56 years ago, Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, started working on the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. Since then, radical turns were brought about in the work of the WPK. Kim Jong Il developed the Party into an ideologically integrated whole.

In those days, when he started working on its Central Committee, leadership authority of the leaders of the ruling parties of the socialist countries was being abused and they were experiencing difficulties and hardships due to the manoeuvres by the modern revisionists.

Kim Jong Il raised the Juche idea authored by President Kim Il Sung, the founder of the WPK, as the invariable guiding ideology of the WPK, and ensured that the ideological unity of the Party was strengthened in every way possible, thus transforming it into an ideologically pure entity, organizationally complete whole and integral whole in action.

When the ruling parties of the socialist countries were dissolved in the late 1990s, he published several works, proving the scientific accuracy and truthfulness of socialism, so as to make the WPK hold high the banner of socialism. 

Kim Jong Il developed the WPK into one which has a firm mass foundation. He ensured that it became a motherly party which assumed the responsibility for the destiny of the masses of the people and took care of them.

Regarding “The people are my God” as his motto, he led all Party organizations and officials to go among the masses to share good times and bad with them, lend their ears to their demands and make devoted efforts for them so as to make the WPK’s policies and lines reflect the demands and aspirations of the people.

Thanks to his benevolent and all-embracing politics, the WPK achieved the single-hearted unity of the leader, Party and people for the first time in history and turned the whole society into a large harmonious socialist family.

As a result, the WPK was developed into a party which took root deep among the masses of the people, an invincible party enjoying absolute support and trust from the people. Kim Jong Il made the WPK acquire the ever-victorious leadership mode.

In the wake of collapse of socialism in several countries of the world in the 1990s, the allied imperialist forces imposed vicious sanctions to stifle and isolate the DPRK.

In the face of the harshest-ever trials, he administered the unique Songun politics as the basic political mode of socialism and the leadership mode of the WPK, firmly safeguarding the sovereignty and dignity of the country from the manoeuvres of the allied imperialist forces; the DPRK strengthened its self-defence capabilities in every way possible, won victory in the unprecedented anti-imperialist confrontation and struggle to defend socialism and overcame all difficulties, thus laying firm foundations for building a powerful socialist country by dint of army-people unity.

His exploits in Party building are carried forward by Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. Every year the DPRK celebrates June 19 in the same splendid way as it does October 10, the founding day of the WPK.

Press Statement by Spokesperson for the National Coordination Committee for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Recently,  the  United  States  is  letting  loose  an  unheard-of  vociferation about  “cyber threat”  from the  DPRK.

We  know  well  that  the  ulterior  intention  of  the  United  States  is  to  tarnish the  image  of our  state  and  create  a  moment  for provoking  us  by  employing a  new  leverage  called  “cyber  threat”  together  with  the  issues  of  nukes, missiles,  “human  rights”,  “sponsoring  of  terrorism”  and  “money laundering.”

The  previous  incidents  of  cyber-attack  which  the  U.S.  had  linked  to  us were  clearly  proven  to  be  the  acts  of  international  hackers,  and  even  the experts  in the  U.S.  have  officially admitted  them.

It  is  none  other  than  the  U.S.  that  does  not  hesitate  to  abuse  even  the modern  civilization  –  the  creation  of  humankind  –  as  a  means  of  plots  and fabrications  in  a  bid  to  taint  the  countries  of  their  “disliking”  with  all  sorts of slanders  and  disgrace.

Such farce  by  the  U.S.  is  nothing  new  to  us. To  put  it  clearly,  our  state  has  nothing  to  do  at  all  with  what  is  claimed by  the  U.S.  to  be  a  “cyber  threat.”

The  U.S.  should  be  clearly  aware  that  worthless  and  worn-out  plots  and fabrications  invented  continuously  by  themselves  will  no  longer  work against the  international  community.

COVID-19 and the DPRK

With COVID-19 driving the whole planet into extreme anxiety and terror, many people are puzzled by one thing: part or the largest of part of territory of the United States, China, Italy, Spain, Iran and other countries which have the highest number of people infected with and killed by COVID-19 are all situated at the latitudes between 30° and 45°N.

Is this just a coincidence?

It needs further study to answer this question, but there could be something. Then those who advocate geopolitics would feel happy with the fact that their theory has reached the realm of virus transmission.

Yet more surprising thing is that COVID-19 has failed to make inroads into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea despite its geographic location at the same latitudes as China, the United States, Iran, Italy and Spain.

The DPRK has established an advanced public healthcare system while enforcing free medical service for nearly 70 years, and now an excellent anti-epidemic system is set up against emergencies. Moreover, its leadership took full emergency measures for establishing national emergency anti-epidemic system in the early days when COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan, China, and has wisely led the struggle for their successful implementation. Its people, who are rallied firmly behind their leader in mind and purpose, have acted as one true to Kim Jong Un’s intentions.