“He was a heaven-sent man for the good of mankind. Such a great man is born once in several centuries.”
This is what Vishwanath, Secretary General of the International Kim Il Sung Prize Council, Director General of the International Institute of the Juche Idea and prominent social figure in India, said about Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. As he said, great are the exploits Kim Jong Il performed for the ideals and peace of mankind.
In the late 20th century, the world was plunged deeper into political turmoil with the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries and revival of capitalism in those countries.
At this very juncture, Kim Jong Il published various works including Socialism Is a Science, in which he proved the scientific accuracy of socialism as an ideal society of humankind and the reactionary and sophistic nature of the slander against socialism. The progressive peoples, who had been groping for a true road, had a full understanding of the cause of the collapse of the socialist system in the Eastern European countries and embarked on the fresh struggle for socialism.
In April 1992, many political parties aspiring after socialism had come to Pyongyang and published a declaration, titled, Let Us Defend and Advance the Socialist Cause. From then on the socialist movement continued its advance in the world arena, and socialism became an unchangeable ideal common to humanity.
However, the DPRK, a socialist fortress in the world, became subject to the offensive of the allied imperialist forces. The use of military means against the country was under discussion and political and economic sanctions and pressure strengthened. To make matters worse, disastrous natural calamities hit the country for consecutive years, making its economic situation more strained.
No other country could have held on in such a situation. Kim Jong Il braved the manifold hardships by rousing his people. With the independent character of the country’s economy strengthened, many factories and enterprises that had suspended production began to resume production. Large-scale land realignment project and many other undertakings were conducted in the agricultural sector to boost cereal production. Technological progresses were made; CNC machine tools were mass-produced and cutting edge was broken in the space technology. All these smashed the enemy’s theory that the DPRK would implode in three days, in three months or in three years.
Holding high the banner of Songun, Kim Jong Il remarkably strengthened the country’s national defence capabilities, thus frustrating the aggressive moves for war by the imperialist forces. Hard-line military measures taken by him prevented hostile forces from igniting a war on the Korean peninsula.
If the DPRK had been the same as Iraq, former Yugoslavia or Afghanistan, it must have met a miserable fate like those countries. Kim Jong Il defended peace and security in Northeast Asia and the rest of the world.
