Korea: A Day to Remember

Kim Jong Un following in the footsteps of those who have gone before him

By Andy Brooks

SEPTEMBER 9^th  is a special day for communists because on that day in 1948 the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established in the free northern part of the Korean peninsula that had once been part of the Japanese Empire. It is a special day for Koreans on both sides of the divided country and amongst the overseas Korean community because on that day in 1948 the Korean people expressed their democratic will through popular power and immediately took the first steps towards building a new socialist life for the workers and peasants who had fought to free themselves from the Japanese yoke that had enslaved them for many decades.

            They were led by Kim Il Sung, the outstanding communist leader and thinker who founded of the modern Korean communist movement that began amongst the patriotic youth of Korea when he was a student in the 1920s.

From student leader to guerrilla leader, the “Young General” took up the gun to drive the Japanese colonialists out of the country. When Kim Il Sung gathered a small band of heroes to form the first guerrilla units to take on the might of the Japanese Army no one could have imagined that this would become the People’s Army that brought the American imperialists to their knees begging for an armistice in 1953.

But above all Kim Il Sung was the communist leader who built the Korean communist movement from the grass-roots in the 1920s to the Workers’ Party of Korea that was founded in 1945 and leads the Korean people from victory to victory in the 21^st century.

Kim Il Sung not only grasped Marxism-Leninism but he applied it to the concrete conditions of the Korean people. He knew that once the masses realised their own strength they would become unstoppable. He knew that serving the people was the be-all and end-all for the Korean communists and for the Workers’ Party of Korea that he launched in 1945.

He developed Korean style socialism into the Juché idea – which elevates the philosophical principles of Marxism-Leninism as well as its economic theories – and focuses on the development of each individual worker, who can only be truly free as part of the collective will of the masses.

When great leader Kim Il Sung passed away in 1994 the torch was taken up by Kim Jong Il, who devoted his entire life to serving the Korean people. Following Kim Il Sung’s footsteps Kim Jong Il led the Workers’ Party of Korea into the 21^st century.  He too was a leading Marxist thinker who made an important contribution to modern communist theory as well as an astute statesman who led the Korean people through thick and thin to overcome natural disasters, imperialist blockade and diplomatic isolation. While ensuring the DPRK’s defence against the threats and provocations of US imperialism and its lackeys, Kim Jong Il worked tirelessly to ease tension on the Korean peninsula to pave the way towards the peaceful reunification of Korea.

Now the banner has been taken up by Kim Jong Un, the young leader of the Workers’ Party and the people of Korea, who is following in the footsteps of those who have gone before him to build a strong and prosperous democratic republic.

We believe that the will of the Korean masses, expressed in concrete terms by their vanguard party, will overcome all obstacles to fulfil the revolutionary tasks that faced the Korean people when they established the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 9^th September 1948.

The New Communist Party of Britain joins with the millions upon millions in the world communist movement in honouring the determination and sacrifice of the Korean people to defend their people’s government, which has fulfilled the hopes and dreams of the generations that fought for freedom and socialism and will continue to do so as we advance into the 21^st century.