In the whole course of his leadership of the revolution and construction, President Kim Il Sung advanced original lines of championing the fundamental interests of the Korean people and the sovereignty of the country and wisely led the struggle to implement them.

At a meeting of the military and political cadres on August 20, Juche 34 (1945) he said: We must continue to advance the Korean revolution on the basis of our triumphant success, and through our own efforts to build a prosperous, independent and sovereign state.

He then specified the immediate task to realize without delay the cause of founding the party, the state and the army, which serves as a practical guarantee for an independent and sovereign state, in line with the demands of the Korean people and by their own efforts.

As he advanced a line of building a new Korea in defence of the fundamental interests of the Korean people and led the country along the road of independence, the Korean-style socialism centred on the masses of the people could be built on this land.

In the mid-20th century, some socialist countries organized the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), and put pressure on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to join it.

At that time, Kim Il Sung made clear his stand as follows: First, the CMEA is an organization run according to a unified plan, and European countries are able to take charge of a sector as they have developed industries. But our country is not on a par with them. Second, as our machine-building industry has yet to be developed, it only has to supply raw materials to its member nations, if it joined the international division of labour, and, after all, it will leave the country nothing but empty caves. Third, in such a case, it has to travel to other nations empty-handed to beg for everything.

He countered their pressure with the buildup of an independent national economy.

Right after the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s, the DPRK and its people were faced with a grave situation. Kim Il Sung made up his mind to convene the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Prior to the meeting, he had discussions over again about the line of simultaneously promoting economic construction and defence building, an issue to be submitted to the plenum.

Officials agreed with each other about his new line as it would provide a guarantee for defending the country and ensuring the prosperity of the nation.

Kim Il Sung knew better than anyone else about the living conditions of the people to be entailed by expenditure on defence building. But he made a crucial decision to hold fast to the new line as the country’s rights to existence and sovereignty was more precious than anything else.

Accordingly, he put forward the policy of simultaneously promoting economic construction and defence building and the slogan “Rifle in one hand and hammer or sickle in the other!” at the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the WPK held in December Juche 51 (1962).

Looking back upon the days when he led the Korean revolution along the road of victory under the uplifted banner of independence, he proudly declared:

Now that our country, once in a state of age-long backwardness and eclipse, trampled underfoot by imperialists, has become a prospering and mighty socialist state, we can feel due pride and confidence in and boast of the revolutionary stand and the independent line we have consistently maintained over the past years and the worthwhile struggle and great achievements of the Party and the people, who, united as one, have creatively blazed a historical trail.

Yang Ryon Hui