KIM JONG UN MAKES
CONGRATULATORY SPEECH AT 4TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF WAR VETERANS
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, made a congratulatory speech
at the 4th National Conference of War Veterans.
The
full text of the speech says:
Dear
war veterans attending the Fourth National Conference of War Veterans,
Other
veterans of the Fatherland Liberation War and persons of wartime merits across
the country,
I
extend warm congratulations to you on greeting July 27, the eternal v-day for
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, our glorious motherland.
And
I extend noble respects to the martyrs of the Korean People's Army and the
Chinese People's Volunteers who laid down their precious lives in the sacred
war for the freedom and independence of the country and peace.
The
Fourth National Conference of War Veterans held today in grand style to mark
the 62nd anniversary of victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War is a
celebration meeting that demonstrates to the world the glorious tradition of
victory of our country that has always emerged victorious in the
anti-imperialist revolutionary wars under the command of the great leaders, and
is a significant meeting that demonstrates the revolutionary mettle of all our
service personnel and people to achieve a new, great victory of the great
Paektusan nation by inheriting the heroic fighting spirit displayed by their
forerunners.
Availing
myself of this significant opportunity, I extend the noblest tribute and
greatest glory to the great Comrade
Kim
Il Sung who led to victory two revolutionary wars against the US and Japanese
imperialist powers, and to the great General Kim Jong Il who achieved one
victory after another in the unprecedented war to defend socialism.
My
noblest respects and warm and militant greetings go also to the anti-Japanese
revolutionary fighters who, faithfully supporting the leadership of the great
leaders, safeguarded the people's country and created the miracle of achieving
victory in the war for heroic Korea, and to the war veterans attending this
conference and across the country and the persons of wartime merits who defeated
the U.S.-led allied imperialist forces and achieved great victory in the fierce
Fatherland Liberation War.
I
also offer my noble respects to the veterans of the Chinese People's Volunteers
who fought shoulder to shoulder with our People's Army soldiers at the cost of
their blood for the freedom and independence of the Korean people and peace in
the East and thus rendered assistance to our righteous revolutionary war.
Our
July 27 is the second Day of Liberation when our people defended with honour their
country's dignity and sovereignty from the brigandish aggression by the U.S.
imperialists, and also the day of proud victors that put the U.S. imperialists,
who were recklessly attempting to gain hegemony in the world and enslave it, on
a downhill march towards ruin.
Less
than two years after its founding, our Republic inflicted an ignominious defeat
on the United States that had been boasting of being the "strongest"
in the world, thus defending its national sovereignty and global peace and
security. This was a military miracle unprecedented in the war history of
mankind and a great feat of historical significance never seen before in the
nation's history spanning 5 000 years.
The
Fatherland Liberation War, which the Korean people fought against the haughty
U.S. imperialists who had battened on aggression and pillage, was in fact a
hard fight that could be likened to a bare-handed man versus brigandish
robbers. The world people did not anticipate that the former would emerge a
winner in this war, which was in effect a confrontation between rifle and
atomic bomb.
Contrary
to this anticipation, however, our service personnel and people safeguarded
their homeland in this three-year-long, do-or-die fight, and our country became
widely known as a heroic nation, a miraculous nation, that prevented the
outbreak of a new world war.
Comrades,
More
than 60 years have passed since the day when fireworks were set off in
celebration of the victory over the arrogant U.S. imperialists, their Stars and
Stripes burning and the flag of our Republic flying high.
In
the long period that has witnessed changes of generations and centuries our
country has been the front line of the anti-U.S. struggle, with the dark clouds
of aggression and war constantly hovering over this land, and the political
situation of the world changed remarkably.
Notwithstanding
this, our service personnel and people are demonstrating their dignity as
guards of independence and our country remains a bulwark of anti-imperialist
independence and peace.
The
United States has sustained one humiliating reverse after another since the 50s
of the last century–this has become its shameful tradition. By contrast, our
heroic Korea is proud of its tradition of thrillingly beating it hard whenever
the overbearing power is running amuck.
Our
country's glorious history and tradition of victory have resulted from the
Juche-oriented military ideas, adroit strategy and tactics, and outstanding art
of command of the heaven-sent legendary generals Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il,
as well as the heroic spirit and indomitable struggle of our service personnel
and people who are boundlessly faithful to their Party and leaders.
No
force can conquer the service personnel and people who, in support of their
great leader, have turned out in the struggle to defend their country with
confidence in the validity of their cause and their own strength–this is a law
and a truth taught by history.
There
can be neither today without yesterday nor tomorrow without today.
Our
war veterans are witnesses to the strength of heroic Korea and its history
resplendent with victory; they are also the country's priceless treasures
representative of the era named after the great leaders.
Our
Party respects them not only as death-defying defenders of the country but as
laudable revolutionary elders and educators who instill the spirit of death-defying
defence of the country in the ranks of their successors marching forward
towards final victory, and it pays high tribute to them.
They
are laudable heroes of our nation and genuine patriots, in that they dedicated
their youth and even their lives to defending the Party, the revolution, the
country and the people.
The
images of the generation who won victory in the war are etched in the minds of
our people, including the young generation, as the sung and unsung heroes
including Ri Su Bok, Kang Ho Yong and An Yong Ae, who sacrificed their only
lives for their one and only motherland.
But
for the generation of our heroic grandfathers and fathers who blocked enemy
pillboxes with their chests and became human bombs to fight against enemy
aircraft and tanks in defence of every inch of the country, this dignified and
powerful socialist country, where people will enjoy happiness under the
leadership of the Workers' Party generation after generation, would not have
existed.
Time
has passed and rivers and mountains have changed, but the legendary tales of
feats of arms of the People's Army warriors who defeated the aggressors with
the unyielding mettle and emerged victors and the bloody footprints they left
can never be forgotten or erased, but are shining more brilliantly in the
prospering country.
The
heroic fighters of the 1950s demonstrated in practice that a people strong in
spirit are fully capable of defeating an imperialist aggressor army armed with
even A-bombs.
What
our service personnel and people trusted absolutely and relied on in the
confrontation with the allied imperialist forces that were numerically and
technically superior was the Supreme Headquarters where the legendary hero
Comrade Kim Il Sung was, and the source of their world-startling, unparalleled
bravery was the ardent love for their motherland, burning hatred against the
enemy and the revolutionary spirit of Paektu of fighting the enemy to the
death.
The
U.S. imperialists, who had been boasting of the myth of their
"strength," launched a series of desperate attacks by hurling
colossal amounts of war materiel and even the troops of their vassal countries,
but they could never dishearten our service personnel and people who were
filled with trust in and affection for the things of their own; the aggressive
riffraff could not but sustain staggering political and military, spiritual and
moral defeats in the whole period of the war.
The
spirit of defending the country created in the flames of the war–this is the
most powerful might that defies comparison with any physical might and the most
precious asset our new generation should inherit from the war veterans who are
strong in ideology and faith.
The
great leaders valued and held up the war veterans, who were trained and tested
in the crucible of war, as the core of the Party and the revolutionary ranks.
After
the war, the war veterans and persons of wartime merits continuously brought
the flowers of the revolution into bloom, devoting their blood and sweat
unsparingly to the prosperity and development of the country, enjoying great
trust of the Party and the leaders.
The
epics of heroic feats in the Chollima era when Koreans demonstrated their true
mettle once again in the flames of great upsurge and the proud annals recording
their endeavours to build a socialist power, independent, self-sufficient and
self-reliant in national defence, tell of the valuable devotion of the
generation of victors who faithfully supported the Party's cause, tightening
their belts to do the shares of their fallen comrades-in-arms as well as their
own.
War
veterans braved the severe ordeals of the Arduous March and forced march,
always throwing in their lot with the Party both in the days of trials and the
days of glory and have imparted to the rising generations the strong faith that
they must invariably travel the long road of the Songun revolution following
the Party. Their ennobling spiritual world is a paradigm of a revolutionary
trait which everyone should learn from.
It
is our great pride and source of strength that we have as our revolutionary
elders the war veterans, who performed undying exploits in the great war for
defending the country and the gigantic socialist construction and are handing
superb ideological and spiritual wealth over to the coming generations.
As
it has excellent people like you who, like the anti-Japanese war veterans, have
gone through fire and water in support of the Party and the leader and
encouraged the ranks of the people on the general onward march throughout their
life with the attitude as befitting steadfast revolutionary soldiers, our Party
always feels assured.
The
war veterans have devoted all their life to the independent reunification and
prosperity of their country in single-hearted support of the great leaders and
the Party since the days when they braved the flames of war. Their ennobling
fighting spirit and splendid patriotic feats will shine brilliantly in
inerasable golden letters in the history of the heroic struggle of our people.
Comrades,
Glorifying
generation after generation the immortal exploits of the great leaders for
achieving war victory and leading the Songun revolution and stoutly carrying
forward the heroic fighting spirit, the spirit of defending the country,
displayed by the revolutionary forerunners including war veterans is a major
strategic policy our Party maintains in its effort to put an end to the
anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. showdown and hasten the final victory of the Korean
revolution.
The
spirit of defending the country the fighters displayed in the 1950s is a great
spirit of the times that inherited the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, and the
spirit of Songun Korea which imbues all the service personnel and people with
ardent patriotism and inspires them to achieve heroic feats.
That
we annually celebrate the v-day on a large scale is aimed at offering
congratulations to the war veterans, revolutionary forerunners, while adding
glory to their heroic life, and at firmly arming all the officers and men of
the People's Army and people, including the younger generation, with the spirit
the defenders of the country displayed in the 1950s so as to encourage them to
the grand struggle to create a new speed of Korea.
We
should hold fast to the spirit of defending the country displayed in the 1950s
as a good textbook for the anti-imperialist class struggle and an ideological
and spiritual weapon for adding lustre to the history and traditions of heroic
Korea, and fully demonstrate its might in the anti-imperialist, anti-U.S.
confrontation and in the final battle for the victory in building a thriving
country.
War
veterans, like in those days when they sang revolutionary songs in the burning
trenches, picturing in their minds the Supreme Headquarters, should support the
Party and the country with unabated ardour and vigor, and hand over to the
coming generations the pure, single-hearted loyalty, the revolutionary faith to
be kept to the death and the indomitable spirit of defending the country as
their life and soul.
The
spirit of defending the country and the revolution displayed by the heroic
soldiers in the days of the war should become the pillar of faith of all the
officers and men of the People's Army, the revolutionary climate in which the
People's Army absolutely obeys the orders of the Supreme Commander be firmly
established as its first and foremost discipline, and ardent love for the
country with which to defend every inch of the land unto death and the fighting
spirit with which to annihilate the enemy without mercy pervade the battle
fields and drilling ground where the campaign for winning the title of Guards
Unit is underway.
When
the spirit of those who ensured wartime production turning belts in machines by
hand and the mettle of those who dedicated themselves to increased grain
production, wartime transport and assistance to the front despite enemy
bombings prevail across the country, world-startling, miraculous innovations
can be created one after another on all the fronts of building an economic
giant, and an eye-opening reality of the whole country turning into "gold
fields," "gold seas" and "gold mountains" be unfolded.
Our
Party attaches special importance to arming the rising generation, young
people, with the spirit of defending the country.
The
problem related with young people is precisely the problem related with the
inheriting of the revolution, and what is most important in carrying forward
the revolutionary cause is to take over the lineage of ideology and faith.
By
cherishing the spirit of defending the country created by their forerunners at
the cost of their blood, young people should respond heartily to the calls of
their country as the heroic soldiers did in the 1950s; they should volunteer,
with burning patriotism, beautiful hopes and great ambitions, to stand at the
forefront of the Songun revolution and work at grand construction sites, and
display to the full the valour and spirit of the masters of the world's
youthful power and the young vanguard of the Songun revolution.
Respecting
war veterans as well as anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters as precious
revolutionary forerunners is the trait and tradition unique to the Korean
revolutionaries.
We
should make the social climate of giving preferential treatment to war veterans
and looking after them with devotion prevail across the country so that they
would feel no inconvenience in their living.
By
so doing, we can ensure that they, who defended today's happy life, feel pride
in being participants in the Fatherland Liberation War, become more vigorous
though they get older and look back on their career with pride.
Now
the United States and its vassal forces are making a last-ditch attempt to
stifle our Republic, as they are oblivious of their ignominious defeat in the
war in the 1950s and the lessons from their complete failure in the
decades-long policy hostile towards our country.
If
the enemy, forgetful of the tradition governed by the law of history, commits
another reckless act of provocation against our Republic, our revolutionary
armed forces will bury them in the grave of final ruin.
Our
force at present is not what it was in the 1950s, when we had to fight with
rifles in our hands against the U.S. imperialists armed to the teeth.
We
now possess such a force as to fight any form of warfare of the choice of the
United States.
We
have a might powerful enough to deter the United States from unleashing a
nuclear war.
Gone
forever is the era when the United States blackmailed us with nukes; now the
United States is no longer a source of threat and fear for us and we are the
very source of the greatest threat and fear for it. This is the present
reality.
Independence
is justice, and it is an inevitable historical outcome that justice emerges
victorious.
Our
cause is just, and no force in the world can check the advance of our service
personnel and people who are marching in high spirits as they are rallied
single-heartedly behind the Party, cherishing as an almighty weapon the
revolutionary spirit of Paektu and the spirit of defending the country
displayed in the 1950s.
Let
us all fight vigorously for final victory.
Respected
veterans,
Other
veterans of the Fatherland Liberation War and persons of wartime merits all
over the country,
I
wish you long life in good health and happiness for your families.
