The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea founded by President Kim Il Sung is a genuine democratic state.

When the country was liberated from Japan’s colonial rule in August 1945, it became an arena of competition for so-called “revolutionaries” and “patriots” who advocated their own doctrines and assertions of all hues. Some claimed that the feudal system should be revived in Korea, while others advocated a bourgeois system. Still others called for an immediate turn to the socialist road.

With a scientific insight into the complicated political situation, Kim Il Sung , at the historic inaugural congress of the Party on October 10, 1945, defined it as the basic political line at the present stage to found a democratic people’s republic and develop the country into a prosperous, democratic, independent and sovereign state.

In November 1945, some students in Sinuiju caused unrest influenced by reactionaries. At that time he went to the city and attended a rally.

Delivering a historic speech Which Path Should Liberated Korea Take? at the event, he said: The democracy we are speaking of is not the US type of “democracy” catering to the interests of the landlord and capitalist classes that oppress and exploit the working masses nor the Soviet style of democracy. Ours is a new type of democracy, a Korean-style democracy applicable to the conditions prevailing in our country.

In the early days of nation building, Kim Il Sung went among the people to lend an ear to them and, on this basis, formulated popular lines and policies in a timely manner.

Later, recollecting the fact that he visited several rural villages in spite of midwinter cold from December 1945 to February the following year, he said that he talked to peasants at their homes, eating boiled pumpkins and potatoes with them, and that if he had not met the peasants to learn about their opinions, the agrarian reform would not have been carried out properly with consequences still on.

This is how the post-liberation democratic reforms were adopted and enforced.

A mass rally was held in Pyongyang on the morning of September 12, 1948 to celebrate the establishment of the DPRK government.

From now on, he said, as a full-fledged people with a government of their own our people will always be protected by this government and have dignity, rights and honour as citizens of the DPRK.

The participants in the rally burst into cheers expressing their full support for the government headed by Kim Il Sung .

There was a lot to cheer and celebrate, for they had long suffered the sorrow of colonial slaves and longed for the leader of a new country who would restore the lost dignity and bring all blessings to generations to come.

Kim Il Sung succeeded in building a democratic, independent and sovereign state, the first of its kind in the 5 000-year history of the country, in a matter of three years after liberation, thus laying a solid foundation for a prosperous power that thrives on self-sustenance and self-dependence.

So Kyong Hyok