The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in July Juche 78 (1989) with the attendance of delegates from over 180 countries, representatives of over 60 international and regional organizations and honorary guests from 90 countries. The festival clearly demonstrated the dignity and might of the Korean youth movement which was playing the leading and pivotal role in defending the anti-imperialist character of the world youth movement and achieving their unity.

The festival took place in the country thanks to the deep concern and meticulous guidance of President Kim Il Sung who devoted himself for the friendship and unity of the youth and students of the world.

He took necessary measures for holding the festival in the country, and ensured that grand construction projects for the festival were successfully completed and that all events, including the opening and closing ceremonies, were prepared in a peculiar style.

At the Fourth Meeting of the International Preparatory Committee of the festival held in Pyongyang in March Juche 78 (1989), he delivered a speech titled, For Friendship and Solidarity among the Youth and Students of the World .

Saying that the WFYS is an important and grand international stage on which the progressive youths and students of the world, who represent the future of mankind, meet, share one another’s youthful ideals and ambitions and strengthen friendship and solidarity, he added our youths, students and all other Korean people strongly support the ideal of the festival for solidarity against imperialism and for peace and friendship.

Friendship and solidarity are the common ideal of the world’s progressive young people, who love freedom and peace, and these are their source of strength, he noted, stressing that the youths and students in various countries of the world must firmly unite, irrespective of ideas, social system, political and religious views, nationality and race, and must support and cooperate closely with each other in the interests of the common cause.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the festival on July 1, he underlined that in order to fulfil the noble mission entrusted to them by the times and mankind, the young people and students must strengthen the ties of international friendship and solidarity and that no force can ever break the powerful ranks of the young people of the age of independence who are advancing shoulder to shoulder in close unity.

During the festival, Kim Il Sung met heads of state, party leaders and honorary guests from different countries across the world on their visit to Pyongyang and attended the closing ceremony of the festival on July 8, 1989 to glorify the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students as a grand festival unprecedented in the history of the festival.

Sung Ryon Hui