70th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea – Militancy, unity and internationalism in Pyongyang
After months of careful and meticulous preparation on the part of the broad masses of working people, Pyongyang, capital of the socialist Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), became a riot of colour and a sea of celebration around October 10th as the country marked that day’s 70 th founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
This anniversary was treated as the greatest festivity of the Korean people this year, as it has been under the leadership of the party that the Korean
people have been able to defend their liberated homeland, both in the three grim years of an imperialist war of aggression from 1950-1953, and subsequently
through more than six ensuing decades, up to and including today, throughout which time the DPRK has faced constant nuclear and other threats from US-led
imperialism.
The WPK has also led the people of the DPRK in the building of an industrialised socialist state, with advanced culture, science and technology, that
provides all its citizens with free education, health care and even housing. Neither imperialist aggression, threats, sanctions and blockade, nor the
betrayal by modern revisionism and the collapse of the USSR and the East European socialist states, nor successive and horrendous natural disasters, have
been able to sway the DPRK’s workers, farmers and intellectuals from the road of independence and socialism, led by their vanguard party and its leaders.
The WPK has also played an important role in the international communist movement and has consistently rendered internationalist solidarity and assistance
to anti-imperialist struggles around the world.
In an article entitled WPK’s Feats for World Socialist Movement published on the day of the anniversary, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
explained the distinctive Juche philosophy of the party’s founder, Comrade Kim Il Sung, by stating:
“President Kim Il Sung clarified the Juche theory of socialism in the course of the struggle to reject modern revisionism and strengthen the Korean
revolution and the world socialist movement… Under his guidance, the WPK fully supported other nations’ struggle for independence and socialism
against imperialism and strove for the unity of the world socialist movement, proceeding from the principled and independent stand.”
At the centre of the Pyongyang celebrations was a massive military parade, immediately followed by an equally impressive civilian demonstration joined by
people from all walks of life, which were reviewed by the Korean people’s supreme leader Comrade Kim Jong Un, joined by party, government and army leaders,
senior delegations from the fraternal socialist countries and other guests.
Immediately prior to the start of the parade, Comrade Kim Jong Un delivered a militant speech, declaring:
”
For our country and people, October 10 is a meaningful revolutionary holiday when they celebrate the birth anniversary of the genuine vanguard of the
revolution, its militant General Staff, which has taken responsibility for their destiny and leads them
.
”
Today’s grand military parade and public procession will fully display the inexhaustible strength which our party has built up over the past 70 years
by leading the service personnel and people. It will also demonstrate to the whole world the revolutionary spirit of all our service personnel and
people who, full of courage and conviction, are advancing towards a bright future, united solidly around the Workers’ Party of Korea.
“Availing myself of this meaningful opportunity, when we are proudly looking back upon the sacred history of the Workers’ Party of Korea, that is
resplendent with victory and glory, I would like to extend, reflecting the boundless reverence and loyalty of the millions of members of our party and
all service personnel and people, the noblest respect and infinite glory to the great Comrade Kim Il Sung, who founded our glorious party and the great
Comrade Kim Jong Il, who is the eternal General Secretary of our dignified Workers’ Party of Korea.
“My noble respect also goes to the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners, martyrs of the People’s Army and other patriotic martyrs who dedicated all
their precious things to promoting the development of our party and the prosperity of the country in loyal support of the great leaders.”
Expressing the unbreakable unity between the party and the Korean working people, Comrade Kim Jong Un continued:
”
As I am standing in the square of victors, the venue for celebrations, which is brimming over with our people’s fervent loyalty, I am so grateful to
them for this venue of today, which would have been unimaginable separated from them, and at this moment I am seeing the dear people with deep respect.
“Our party has been able to propel the revolution over the past 70 years without flinching whatever the storms, achieving only victory and glory,
because this great people have entrusted their own destiny entirely to it and followed it in faithful support of its cause.
“The history of our party is just the path travelled by our great people, its might is their might, its greatness is their greatness, and its victory
is the victory achieved by them.
“On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the party I, on behalf of the Workers’ Party of Korea, extend warm thanks with a deep bow
to all the beloved people who have infused our party with inexhaustible strength and courage and remained faithful to it in every grave period of the
revolution, sharing weal and woe with it in overcoming the harsh trials of history by dint of unyielding willpower
.”
Surveying history, Comrade Kim Jong Un continued:
”
The new Korea was too young, but the US imperialists, hell-bent on world supremacy, forced a devastating war upon it; when we rebuilt the country on
the debris with so much effort tightening our belts, they presented a fresh threat of aggression; and when we were trying to develop our national
economy, they blocked our road by imposing the sanctions and blockade unprecedented in history.
“Despite all the difficulties, our party has always charged forward with iron nerves in any adversity, ushered in a new age of epoch-making changes on
this land, and scored only great victories…
“The creative strength of the omnipotent masses was the source of the great miracles our party worked while building a powerful socialist bulwark,
independent, self-supporting and self-reliant in national defence, on this land where centuries-old backwardness and poverty had prevailed, and
ushering in a new era of building a powerful country in the face of the pernicious blockade imposed by the imperialists
.”
Comrade Kim Jong Un laid stress on the importance of having powerful revolutionary armed forces in the context of the struggle against imperialism,
stating:
“The might of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which struggles for the people, lies in the fact that it has powerful revolutionary armed forces.
“Our people have keenly realised the truth that a people without arms is destined to become a ruined nation and that their dignity and happiness are
guaranteed by revolutionary arms.
“Our party has always channelled primary efforts into building invincible military strength with which it can creditably defend the security of the
people and their lives and property.
“Thanks to our party’s original line of self-reliant defence and Songun
[military-first]
politics, the People’s Army has been developed into an elite revolutionary army that is capable of defeating any aggressor forces at a stroke, and the
all-people and all-country defence system consolidated steadily, with the result that our country has now turned into an impregnable fortress, into a
world-class military power…
“In direct confrontation with the high-handed US imperialists, who have fattened themselves through aggression and war, our service personnel and
people have inflicted one ignominious defeat after another upon them and are forcefully breaking through the brigandish sanctions and blockade by
imperialist forces. Their indomitable spirit and strength of unity strike extreme anxiety and fear into the enemy.
“Today our party can proudly state that our revolutionary armed forces are capable of fighting any type of war the US imperialists opt for, and have
made full preparations for firmly defending the blue sky over the country and the security of the people.
”
Comrade Kim Jong Un also spoke about the importance of the youth, stating:
”
The source of the unique pride for the Workers’ Party of Korea is the large contingent of young people who have been trained to shoulder the future of
the revolution and the nation.
“Foreseeing the protracted nature of the revolution in the initial period of its founding, our party set attaching importance to young people as its
strategic line and has trained them into warriors for the implementation of the cause of the Juche revolution…
“That our revolution is still advancing vigorously filled with unflagging energy and vitality without stagnation and marking time is because it has a
steel-strong legion of young people who always march straight forward following the party…
“The Korean revolution advances not by dint of any mysterious divine power, but on the great strength of our people including the heroic Kim Il Sung’s
and Kim Jong Il’s working class who follow and safeguard their party with a single mind…
“As the working people exist forever, lasting justice and victory will be ensured by the struggle for the people and together with the people
.”
Representing the socialist countries, in a welcome spirit of comradeship and unity, Comrade Kim Jong Un and the senior leadership of the WPK were joined on
the rostrum of Kim Il Sung Square by the visiting delegations of the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by Comrade Liu Yunshan, Member of the Standing
Committee of the Political Bureau and of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee; the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and the Cuban government led by
Comrade Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa, PCC Politburo member and Vice President of the Council of State; the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPVN), led by
Comrade Ha Thi Khiet, Secretary of the Central Committee and Director of its Mass Movement Department; and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP), led
by Comrade Chansy Phosikham, Secretary of the Central Committee and Chair of its Organisation Committee.
Meeting with the Chinese delegation the previous day, shortly after their arrival in Pyongyang, Comrade Kim Jong Un was quoted by KCNA as stating that:
”
The DPRK-China relations are not merely the neighbourly ones but have become strategic relations rooted in the tradition of friendship forged with
blood…The greatest feat and legacy in the foreign work left by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il for us is the DPRK-China friendship.
“Saying that the tradition should not be recorded only in history books and textbooks but inherited and glorified in practice, he noted that it is the
will of the WPK and the Korean people to further consolidate the traditional DPRK-China friendship generation after generation.
“He expressed the belief that the invincible vitality of the DPRK-China friendship, a treasure common to the peoples of the two countries, will be more
dynamically displayed in the future thanks to the efforts of both sides
.”
For his part, Comrade Liu was reported as stating that ”
the WPK led the Korean people and achieved the independence of the country and the liberation of the people and made noteworthy successes in the
socialist revolution and construction of Korea, overcoming the manifold difficulties, under the leadership of the great leader of the Korean people
President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il
.
”
He noted that the party, government and people of China are sincerely rejoiced over the great achievements made by the Korean people in various fields,
including economic development and improvement of the people’s living standard thanks to the leadership and organisational ability of First Secretary
Kim Jong Un, who is carrying out the behests of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and to the appeal of the WPK in recent years, in particular.”
(‘Kim Jong Un receives delegation of Communist Party of China’, KCNA, October 10 2015)