• International E-seminar in Celebration of the 80th Birth Anniversary of General Kim Jong Il

TODAY, as the 80th birth anniversary of the great leader Chairman Kim Jong Il – the Day of the Shining Star, one of the greatest holidays of the Korean people and the world progressives – has come, it's especially good time to reflect on his outstanding and brilliant achievements. The achievements that cannot be called otherwise than immortal ones, as they provided solid and eternal foundations for building of a thriving country on the Korean land.

Chairman Kim Jong Il was born to illustrious guerilla commander Kim Il Sung and the anti-Japanese war heroine Kim Jong Suk at the Paektusan Secret Camp, a key base of the armed struggle against the Japanese occupiers, on 16th of February 1942. He spent his childhood years in the flames of the hard-fought anti-Japanese war and Fatherland Liberation War against the armed invasion of the imperialist allied forces. His life began amid the boundless patriotic devotion and he chose the road of boundless patriotic devotion to go along it for the whole of his life.

Chairman Kim Jong Il led a simple life. As a student he was surprising people all the time as although he was the son of the Premier of the country he wore very modest outfit and darned socks, carried with him to school discoloured wrapper instead of a school bag and was deeply engaged not only in his studies, but also usual duties as cleaning the classroom etc. During his university days, he worked at the Pyongyang Textile Machinery Manufactory. He worked diligently, during lunch breaks he played volleyball with the workers, and going back home he took a crowded bus with them. He also did construction work together with his fellow students, organized them into the teams and himself worked more than he was assigned, exceeding the work norm.

After graduating from Kim Il Sung University, he started working at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea from June 1964. It's a significant and symbolic date in the history of the WPK as the achievements he had made for the country and people during decades of his work were brilliant indeed.

It's impossible to even mention any significant part of Chairman Kim Jong Il’s numerous great exploits in just a short text, so I won't try, but some general points should be made.

What is very important, Chairman Kim Jong Il, as a great thinker and theoretician that he was, developed in depth the Juche idea, founded by President Kim Il Sung, priceless idea that also today serves as an ideological basis to defend the sovereignty of the DPRK and ensure its vigorous advance. He made sure that the Juche principle was thoroughly applied in the revolution and construction, what brought a heyday of Korean-style socialist construction.

Throughout his life he continued his ceaseless journey of field guidance to all the places where his beloved people worked and lived. Visiting factories, farms and military units across the country he was happy to find himself among ordinary workers, farmers and soldiers and he worked hard to bring them development and happiness.

He worked without rest for the prosperity of the country through decades, but the 1990s brought even harder work for him. In 1994 the Korean people were struck with an unimaginably painful tragedy, the unexpected demise of President Kim Il Sung.  And after the collapse of the socialist bloc at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the imperialist forces concentrated their anti-socialist offensive on the DPRK. Taking advantage of the opportunity when the socialist market vanished, they heavily intensified economic blockade against the country. They also sent military reinforcements to the Korean peninsula to wage war rehearsals there, making the situation extremely tense. US policymakers were keep making open threats against the DPRK. They wanted to bring the Korean people to their knees or occupy their land by force. As if that weren't enough, devastating natural disasters hit the country for several consecutive years.

In those circumstances some Western pundits were predicting "imminent collapse" of the DPRK – after all, how can it be possible for any country to successfully break through so grave trials and adversities? For the DPRK it was possible. With his original Songun (military-first) politics, Chairman Kim Jong Il defeated imperialists' plans to stifle the country. And he led the Korean people to overcome the worst difficulties, defended socialism and country's sovereignty and so protected the people's interests, dignity and destiny.

Chairman Kim Jong Il turned the DPRK into a nuclear weapons state what put it in the elite club of just a handful of countries, but what is more important, thanks to the deterrent impact of the DPRK's nuclear capabilities, the danger of war on the Korean peninsula significantly decreased. He also made the DPRK a satellite manufacturing and launching state.

He worked heart and soul for the improvement of the people's living standard, until literally the last moments of his life. Under his leadership, even during the most difficult times, multiple hydroelectric power stations were build in different parts of the country, the Juche-based system of iron making was established, or gigantic land realignment projects were successfully carried out to boost the agricultural production. And those are only few examples out of many. Heartbreaking and deeply moving is the fact that he didn't stop his hard work for the people until his heart stopped beating on a running train while he was on his way for field guidance. Enduring his fatigue and despite suffering from a severe illness, he day and night continued the journey to bring prosperity to the people. The year 2011 was full of his devoted efforts for their well-being and happiness. This year, under his leadership, the light industry sector made leaping progress and innovations. He also worked hard with a view to improving people's diet. Paying deep attention to the units conductive to this end, he inspected such places as cooperative farms, fish farms, duck farms, fruit farms, many foodstuff factories etc. On 15th of December 2011, two days before his demise, he gave field guidance to the Hana Musical Information Centre and the Kwangbok Area Supermarket for a long time. The next day he studied the papers on improving the people’s living standards in his office until late night hours, and then left for another round of field guidance.

Today the Korean people are building a thriving socialist nation under the wise and outstanding leadership of the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un. I was happy to personally witness this reality while visiting the DPRK in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Although socialist Korea is burdened with imperialist sanctions more heavily than any other country in the world, surprisingly it wasn't really noticeable for me. What I saw was the modern and beautiful country where state's care for the people is present at every step, people are enthusiastic, good-hearted and walk down the streets with happy faces and much laughter and joy could be heard and seen. In recent years, the DPRK has to cope with even more difficult situation due to moves of the hostile forces to stifle the country and the protracted global health crisis. But led by the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un, the people are invariably able to break through all difficulties and vigorously advance toward a bright future.

Building socialism under the guidance of General Secretary Kim Jong Un, another great leader who brilliantly carries forward the idea and cause of Chairman Kim Jong Il and his love for the people, Koreans can never forget kind image of the Chairman. He totally dedicated himself to them and saved their country and destiny. Today's Korea would be unthinkable without him and he is still alive in the hearts of the Korean people. And so it can be boldly said that Chairman Kim Jong Il will always be with them.

Because the Korean people have the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un as their leader, their future surely will be very rosy, as desired by Chairman Kim Jong Il.