People's Democracy

Meeting Condoles Kim Jong Il’s Demise

ON December 23, the All India Indo-Korean Friendship Association organised a condolence meeting to mourn the passing away of Comrade Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Supreme Commander of the Korean Peoples Army, at 4 Ashoka Road, New Delhi. Those who addressed the meeting included Captain Praveen Davar (member of the All India Congress Committee), Sitaram Yechuri (member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau and of parliament), Devi Prasad Tripathi (general secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party), Amarjeet Kaur (member of the National Executive of Communist Party of India), Dharmendra Kumar Verma (member of the Central Committee of All India Forward Bloc) and Dr Harish Gupta (director of the Asian Region Juche Institute). Suneet Chopra, general secretary of the All India Indo-Korean Friendship Association, joint secretary of the All India Agricultural Workers Union and member of the CPI(M) Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

Others who participated in the meeting included D K Agarwal (general secretary of the All India Lawyers Union), Nurul Huda (joint secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha and member of the CPI(M) Central Committee), V S Nirmal (national secretary of the Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union), Sivadasan (joint secretary, Students Federation of India), Dr Viswanath (vice president of the All India Indo-Korean Friendship Association), Dr S V Rama Rao, Dr Poonam S Chauhan, Dr Vijay Kumar Chopra, Dr Prakash Mankotia, Prof R S Nigam, Dr Neera Narang, R Arun Kumar and other leading figures from the field of the trade unions, law, academics and journalism. There were also many workers from the working class areas of Delhi and two representatives of the embassy of DPRK in India.  

The speakers stressed the steadfast manner in which Comrade Kim Jong Il not only succeeded in maintaining the sovereignty of the DPRK since 1994, when he took over from Korea’s president Comrade Kim Il Sung, but also diversified the application of the principle of self-reliance (Juche). He extended it to the concept of effective security by ensuring that the Korean people’s army was strong enough to stand up to the armed interventions of imperialist powers at any time on the basis of the Song Un (army first), principle. This vision reminded one that imperialism could never be trusted and the only way to stand up to it was with arms in hand. The speakers also stressed the role that Kim Jong Il played in extending the borders of self-reliance to the fields of consumer goods, agriculture and advanced science.

The meeting wished Kim Jong Un, vice chairman of the DPRK’s National Defence Commission, a future which may see the reunification of Korea, peace and full success in advancing both in industry and the agricultural sectors. The speaker expressed the hope that the DPRK government would meet not only the needs of economic development and of the security of the Korean people who have contributed so much to keeping alive the spirit of self-reliance and progress in the region, giving enormous hope to the people of the world in a better future. They also demanded removal of the US troops and arms from South Korea to allow the Korean people to move, in accordance with their own sovereign desire, towards greater prosperity and progress, and also achieve the unity of Korea that is necessary to bring lasting peace to the region and strengthen peace and progress in the world as a whole. They also stressed their concern to strengthen the relations between India and Korea, bringing the people closer together in brotherhood and peace in the future as well.

Two minutes silence was observed to pay homage and floral tributes were offered to the departed leader.