People's Democracy

THE Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea observed three important anniversaries in the month of April: they were the 90th birth anniversary of Comrade Kim Il Sung (April 15), the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Pyongyang Declaration (April 18) and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Peoples Army (April 25). These events were of even greater significance as they followed open and rabid threats by the US president Bush describing Korea as one of an "axis of evil" and threatening this small socialist state with punitive action and even a nuclear strike.

This was even more unpalatable to the Korean people as the USA maintains its presence on the Korean peninsula only by dividing the country and stationing 37,000 troops there in 40 military establishments, a number of them with nuclear weapons. To make maters worse, at the end of March, the US conducted the biggest ever armed manoeuvres since the invasion of Korea by that country along with fifteen of its allies in 1950-53 when the Korean resistance forced the US to sign an armistice. In this, the US forces in Korea and Japan were used, as well as nearly six lakh South Korean troops. But its intentions were clear. If socialist states will not dismantle themselves willingly and hand over their resources to the multinationals, they would have to face the threat of invasion. This is the unchanging character of imperialism, the phenomenon unleashed on the world by a dying capitalism at its most retrograde stage of development. And it has to be countered boldly as the DPRK has chosen to do.

The DPRK could not have faced a worse situation. A large chunk of the world socialist camp dismantled itself. The Soviet Union broke up and it and many states of Eastern Europe again joined the world capitalist system. Moreover, the DPRK was the victim of a series of natural disasters, like flood and drought, which US imperialism hoped to use to browbeat socialist Korea back on the road to exploitation, oppression and backwardness again.

But the imperialists have failed. There are many reasons for it. The most important, of course, is the concrete ideology hammered out by Comrade Kim Il Sung and the Workers Party of Korea the most important element of which was depending on the people to exercise self reliance, which the Koreans speak of as the Juche idea. On this basis seeing the poor agrarian base of a mountainous country with only 15 per cent to 20 per cent of its area suitable for farming, the Korean state built up a powerful industrial base, manufacturing its own turbines, construction machinery and even ships. At the same time it was able to manufacture the arms it needed to defend itself. There are numerous provocations it daily faces on the 38th parallel including violation of air space and even spy-ships, one of which the DPRK captured and now keeps as an exhibit on the Tacdong river bank in Pyongyang.

In the process of countering the new threat from imperialism the Korean party correctly identified the socialist man as best fitted to respond to imperialism and not merely economic competition (which would have been almost impossible for a small country with narrow agrarian possibilities to do). So the stress was on instilling socialist consciousness, a unified understanding, proper leadership, the capacity of every Korean to defend himself and a call for a global resistance to imperialism. This uncompromising stand on both socialist construction and against imperialism had brought many people from different countries to Pyongyang this April.

Addressing the gathering of delegates of fraternal parties, friendship and solidarity groups and individuals on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Pyongyang Declaration, Comrade Choi Te Bok, secretary of the CC of the Korean Workers Party, pointed out how "the end of the 20th century when the Pyongyang Declaration was announced was the arduous period when the just cause of progressive humanity of the world, the cause of socialism was undergoing difficulties, twists and turns. In the face of the tragic event of the frustration and collapse of socialism, people were disappointed and countries, parties, organisations and people aspiring after and socialism vacillated in confusion. This prevailing situation urgently demanded that the communist and workers' parties should overcome these abnormal phenomena in time in the course of development of socialism, revive the socialist movement and bring about a new upsurge in the accomplishment of the cause of socialism."

The Pyongyang Declaration was a clarion call to all such parties that "in order to safeguard and advance the cause of socialism, the parties of each country should hold fast to independence, strengthen their force, uphold the banner of socialism on the basis of revolutionary principles and promote international unity." The CPI(M) was one of the earliest to respond. Today over 260 parties have done so.

For Korea he pointed out: "The struggle of our party and people during the last ten years was a life and death struggle deciding whether to defend their people-centred socialism from the heinous imperialist moves of isolation and suffocation or die as slaves of imperialism, and, at the same time, it was a sacred struggle to safeguard the cause of world socialism."

To achieve this end, in the conditions of Korea, people were encouraged and motivated to accomplish great tasks like the building of the 8 km long West Sea barrage to save the water from the Tacdong river and irrigate over 2 lakh acres of reclaimed land, roads, tunnels, canals, restructuring of industrial technology, training personnel in information technology and of course, self defence. In fact without being able to defend the revolution physically (and hence the "army first" policy of the Korean party), nothing would survive.

Indeed it was on the basis of the success of this policy that he could state: "Our stand towards the imperialist aggressors is resolute and our answer is merciless. All the officers and soldiers of our Peoples' Army and the people will wipe out the enemy to the last man and achieve the historic cause of country's reunification if the US imperialists provoke war in Korea."

This was no empty threat. For it was under the leadership of the Korean Workers Party headed by Comrade Kim Il Sung that North Korea became the first country that made the US forces (hiding behind the UN flag) sign an armistice. And that too, only after well over 400,000 US troops were either killed or captured. To anyone who saw the villages tackling shortages by putting the effort of every individual into planting and harvesting, or the massive performances that coordinated human beings, laser, torchlight, parachute jumps, trapeze acts, torchlight figure - making, with tens of thousands participating in them and not one out of step, will realise that the mood is more upbeat in Korea today than it was in the fifties. The new Korea respects the continuity of the struggle against imperialism and the building of socialism on the collective principles.

The DPRK has successfully stood the test of the times by refusing to put market forces against people, by exacting the maximum from its leaders, both of the Workers Party and the Peoples Army, by forging ahead with even more discipline with its "army first" policy in order to confront imperialism and not compromising with it. And in this process it has secured the support of the revolutionary and progressive forces of Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. South Asia too, was well-represented by the delegations of the CPI(M), CPI, Forward Bloc with Ramesh Chandra of the World Peace Council and former union minister Shiv Shanker as guests; the Bangla Desh Communist Party (ML) and the ruling BNP; the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) with a large delegation as well as individuals from Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In all, nearly a hundred foreign delegates were present, making it a significant rebuff to US imperialism. And its impact was not lost on South Korea's regime which kept silent while, the president raged and ranted and sent an envoy to Pyongyang instead.