Text of report by “Comrade Pak Pong Ju, member of the Political Bureau of the Workers Party of Korea Central Committee and premier of the DPRK Cabinet” at a central report meeting held at Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex on 1 May to mark the 123rd May Day, carried by North Korean radio Korean Central Broadcasting Station on 1 May
Today, we are meaningfully commemorating the 123rd anniversary of May Day, an international holiday of the working people throughout the world, at an exciting time when the entire party, the entire army, and all the people have turned out like mountains in the struggle to implement the line of simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of nuclear armed force presented by respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un at the historic March 2013 plenary meeting of the Central Committee [CC] of the Workers Party of Korea [WPK].
May Day is a meaningful holiday for vigorously demonstrating all over the world the revolutionary mettle and militant might of workers, farmers, intellectuals and other working people of military-first Korea who are struggling devotedly for the fatherland’s wealth and prosperity in single-hearted unity around the party, and also for strengthening international solidarity with the working people the world over who are struggling for democratic freedom and rights and independent life by breaking the iron chains of capital. [applause]
On the occasion of May Day, our working people, who are enjoying the most dignified and worthwhile life on account of upholding an extraordinary heaven-sent brilliant commander, are extending militant greetings and firm solidarity to the working people all over the world who are fighting to build a just and peaceful new world under the banner of independence against imperialism.
Our working class and all other working people are now looking back, with deep emotion, on the proud course of victory and glory in which they have advanced with the matchless great men of Mt Paektu held in high esteem at the head of the revolution, and they are overflowing with a blazing resolve to complete the cause of the chuch’e revolution to the end under the wise leadership of respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un, inscribing deep on their heart! s the luck of being blessed with the leader and the general, generation after generation. [applause]
Comrades!
The Korean revolution was unprecedentedly arduous and rough, but our working people were able to excellently carry out their noble historic mission and duty in the struggle to achieve the cause of the chuch’e revolution and the cause of socialism, thanks to upholding the great leader and the great leader.
The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung put forward a broad range of workers, farmers, intellectuals, and other working people as masters of their destiny early on under the banner of chuch’e idea from the first days of setting out on the road of the revolution, and ushered in a new historic era, the chuch’e era, of achieving independence of the popular masses by activating their inexhaustible strength. [applause]
The great leader, who always paid deep attention to the position and role occupied and played by the working class and other working masses in implementing the popular ma! sses’ cause of independence, further heightened the revolutionary zeal of the masses by having them meaningfully commemorate May Day even amid the arduous struggle of the great anti-Japanese war, and vigorously encouraged our working people to the struggle to build a new fatherland by personally attending a Pyongyang mass rally held to commemorate May Day in the first year after national liberation.
During that difficult period after the war, the great leader visited the working class of Kangso’n and kindled the flames of the Ch’o’llima [mythological winged horse] movement, and warmly led our working people by hand to perform feats in socialist construction with his unsurpassed and tested leadership during every period and at every stage of the revolution and construction.
Forever will shine for ages, along with eternal prosperity of military-first Korea, the immortal revolutionary achievements of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung who stayed a! mong the working people all his life and raised workers, farmers, and intellectuals into the most revolutionary working people upholding the party and the leader with faith and obligation and into the reliable persons in charge of building a wealthy and powerful fatherland, and built a socialist powerful state of independence, self-support, and self-defence on the land of the fatherland by arousing the boundless spiritual strength and united strength of the working popular masses. [applause]
The great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il cherished the completion of the cause of the chuch’e revolution pioneered by the fatherly leader as his lifelong mission and stood at the head of the revolution to firmly rally the working class and a broad range of the working masses around the party with his politics of love and trust and benevolent politics, and wisely led the popular masses’ cause of independence and the cause of socialism along a single path of victory with the might of single-hearted unity. [applause]
With enormous love and trust toward the workers, farmers, and intellectuals who loyally upheld the party and the leader while always sharing their destiny with the party both in days of glory and hardship, the great general had May Day commemorated as an international holiday of the working people all over the world from a chuch’e-oriented viewpoint, thereby reinforcing the single-hearted unity of our revolutionary ranks in every way and enabling a broad range of the working people to excellently discharge their responsibility and duty based on the awareness that they are the masters of the country and revolution.
The great general energetically led our working people to strongly arm themselves with the chuch’e idea and military-first idea; create the Kanggye spirit by following and learning from the revolutionary soldier spirit and fighting traits of the people’s army; kindle the torches of the grand march of great upswing one after another; and embroider chronicles of the vic! tory of socialism and a heroic epic of powerful state construction.
Thanks to the energetic leadership of the great general, who unfolded a new history of the great revolutionary upswing in the whole country and had millions of soldiers and people boldly charge ahead toward the world while breaking through the ultra-cutting edge with their spiritual strength in the course of carrying on an ultra-intense forced march day and night until the last moments of his great revolutionary life, the flames of Hamnam [South Hamgyo’ng Province], the flames of the industrial revolution in the new century, blazed up fiercely; marvellous events took place in multiple stages on all fronts of improving the people’s living standards and building an economically powerful state; and our fatherland came to demonstrate its dignity and majestic might as the great Mt Paektu state, the socialist power with nuclear weapons and satellites. [applause]
The sacred history of the great general’s leadership over the military-first revolution, in wh! ich he led the revolution and construction to victory by relying on the boundless creative ability and united strength of the working class and other working popular masses, is continuing vigorously through respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un. [applause]
Respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un is wisely leading the van of the anti-US war of confrontation and the struggle to build a powerful state with his extraordinary sagacity, unsurpassed art of command, and matchless courage and gusts while ceaselessly carrying on the road of the military-first long march, with the supreme command established on the foremost front of defending the fatherland.
The respected and beloved marshal is energetically leading our working people to struggle vigorously for the final victory, while clearly illuminating the course of powerful state construction and trusting and putting forward the working class and other working people as his revolutionary comrades! and comrades-in-arms.
By wisely discerning the natural-law governed demands of the grave situation prevailing before our revolution and the developing revolution, respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un presented a new strategic line on simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of nuclear armed force at the historic March 2013 plenary meeting of the party CC. This is a great event in the history of the nation firmly guaranteeing the ultimate victory of the cause of the chuch’e revolution, which achieving the final victory in the anti-US all-out war of confrontation and the construction of a powerful state. [applause]
Our army and people came to be able to fight more powerfully with overflowing conviction of sure victory and optimism, thanks to the presentation of the new simultaneous line, which is a crystallization of the unshakable faith and will of our party to finally settle all accounts in the anti-US war of confrontation and build the world’s most powerful country and a paradise ! of the people on this land as soon as possible.
Our country is highly displaying the mettle of the great Mt Paektu state by firmly attaining the status of a space power and a nuclear power; an unprecedented great heyday of thriving prosperity is unfolding in all fields of the revolution and construction; and the party’s far-sighted plans to enable our people to enjoy wealth and honour under socialism to their hearts’ content are being realized one by one. This proud reality is a clear manifestation of respected and beloved Comrade Kim Jong-un’s extraordinary leadership ability. [applause]
Preciously etched in every chronicle of the Korean revolution embroidered with victory and glory are the creative passion and heroic feats of our working class and other working people, who have struggled devotedly for the fatherland and revolution with hammers, sickles, and writing brushes, remaining true to the leadership of the party and the leader.
The invincible majestic might of a socialist power possessed of nuclear weapons and satellites that no one dares to provoke; our-style CNC [computer numerical control] technology that broke through the world’s ultra-cutting edge; the majestic and splendid great monumental creations striking the world’s people with admiration and chuch’e-based production systems demonstrating the might of self-supporting economy; the modern production bases and marvellous socialist fairylands that sprang up everywhere; and other proud achievements demonstrating the high ideal and civilization of our people vividly show the indomitable spiritual strength and creative ability of our working people who are endlessly loyal to the party and the leader. [applause]
There are many countries in the world and each country has many working people, but there are no working people like our working people of military-first Korea who devote themselves to the cause of patriotism with their creative labours, while displaying their independent dignity as human! beings and enjoying a worthwhile and proud life in the arms of the extraordinary heaven-sent great men.
Truly, it is the supreme fortune and enormous honour and happiness of our working people to fight resolutely for a bright future of the new century, flying high the sun’s flag of great Comrade Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong-il highly praised by the entire world as the sun of mankind and holding respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un, the military-first brilliant commander of Paektu, in high esteem at the head of the revolution. [applause]
On this meaningful occasion of commemorating the 123rd anniversary of May Day, the international holiday of the working people all over the world, by reflecting the blazing loyalty of the working people throughout the country, I pay the loftiest respect to great Comrade Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong-il who made forever immortal achievements in implementing the popular masses’ cause of independence, an! d extend the greatest honour and the most fervent gratitude to respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of our party and people who is leading the anti-US war of confrontation and powerful state construction to victory with his leadership over the military-first revolution and bringing every happiness to our working people. [applause]
Arising before us today is an honourable yet heavy task to thoroughly implement the new strategic line on simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of nuclear armed force, holding high the spirit of the historic March 2013 plenary meeting of the WPK CC, and thus defend the dignity and sovereignty of the nation, and build the world’s most powerful country and a paradise of the people on this land under respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un’s leadership.
Respected and beloved Comrade Kim Jong-un has said that we will win without fail, as long as great Comrade Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong-il, who live forever in the hearts of all of! ficers and men of the people’s army and the people across the country, bless our bright future and we have the unrivalled powerful revolutionary army of Mt Paektu, the invincible great army-people unity, and the loyal people who uphold the party’s cause with conscience and obligation.
Cherishing an absolutely immutable faith that great Comrade Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong-il are with us forever, we should hold the fatherly leader and the great general in high esteem for all ages and add lustre to the glorious revolutionary lives and immortal achievements of the leader and the general through all generations. [applause]
We should spruce up the Ku’msusan Palace of the Sun all the better as a great monument to the immortality of the leaders, a symbol of the dignity of the Korean nation, and an eternal sacred place of the sun, and death-defying preserve it at the risk of our lives.
Holding fast to great Comrade Kim Jong-il’s behest as a programmatic guiding principle, all working people should implement it to the end unconditionally without an inch of deviation or the slightest concession and do all work of the revolution and construction in accordance with the general’s ideas and intentions and in the general’s style.
Respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un, who is an extraordinary statesman and a distinguished military-first brilliant commander, is the destiny and future of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il Korea and the banner of all victories and glories. [applause]
Following the tradition of death-defying defence of the leader, we should uphold respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un with pure loyalty, lofty moral obligation, and single-minded devotion, turn ourselves into fortresses and shields in innumerable layers to death-defying defend him, and firmly continue the Paektu road of march by uniting, uniting, and again uniting around the marshal.
All working people should hold high the spirit of the March 2013 plenary meeting of the party CC and thoroughly implement the line of simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of nuclear armed force, thereby holding fast to and glorifying our idea, cause, and socialist system to the end.
We should vigorously turn out in the anti-US all-out war of confrontation and the great war of justice for the fatherland’s reunification to cope with the grave situation in which the aggression manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the puppet warmongers have reached the extreme, and maintain full combat and mobilization readiness to wipe out the aggressors without a trace and achieve the final victory.
All working people should actively assist the people’s army, which is a reliable scout party and a firm supporting point of the military-first revolution, ceaselessly bolster self-defensive national defence capabilities with the nuclear armed force as the backbone, and consolidate the great army-people unity like s! teel.
All working people should strongly arm themselves with the spirit of defending the fatherland displayed in the 1950s, and while always maintaining a strained and mobilized posture, should turn out like mountains in the sacred retaliatory war of justice once the respected and beloved comrade supreme commander gives the order, and by giving full vent to their long pent-up grudge and rage, they should mercilessly smash the US imperialists – the sworn enemies – and the puppet groups of traitors in an instant and accomplish by all means the historic cause of the fatherland’s reunification, the greatest long-cherished desire of our nation. [applause]
This year is a meaningful year marking the 65th founding anniversary of the Republic and the 60th anniversary of war victory.
With the faith of sure victory and exceptional resolve, we should fiercely stoke up the flames of miracle and innovation in all sectors of the people’s economy through a bold attack and an all-people life-and-death battle.
The working class of the leading sectors of the people’s economy and the basic industrial sectors should open up a breakthrough for victory in today’s march of great upswing with the same fighting spirit and the same vigour as displayed in implementing the party’s simultaneous line in the 1960s, as befitting the scout and forerunner of building an economically powerful state.
The working people of agricultural and light industrial sectors should fill up the country’s rice bin by doing the farming well in accordance with the demands of the chuch’e-oriented farming method, and improve the people’s living standards within the shortest span of time by increasing the production of quality people’s consumer goods based on a strong sense of responsibility that they are in charge of the main front of building an economically powerful state.
Holding high the torch of the industrial revolution in the new century by thoroughly embodying Kim Jong-il pat! riotism, the working people of all sectors and units of the people’s economy should boldly wage the battle of breaking through the ultra-cutting edge and more fiercely raise a hot wind for changing the country’s economy to a knowledge economy.
Scientists and technicians should ceaselessly develop our self-supporting nuclear power industry and space science and technology and thus continue to vigorously demonstrate the national power of the great Mt Paektu state with the same spirit they displayed in dealing a hard blow to the US imperialists and their following forces by developing space and succeeding in the third underground nuclear test.
The fatherland’s reunification is the most pressing task of the nation that cannot be put off any longer and the lifelong desire and behest of the great generalissimos.
Grave obstacles are standing in the way of the fatherland’s reunification and an ultra-tense situation in which a war may break out at any moment is prevailing in this land due to the vicious anti-Re! public hostile policy and frenzied nuclear war manoeuvres of the US imperialists, the sworn enemies of our people, and their following forces.
More firmly taking hold of the nuclear treasured sword of independence as the enemies’ manoeuvres grow more vicious, we will mercilessly punish the United States and all sorts of other hostile forces and realize the historic cause of the fatherland’s reunification without fail through final victory in the anti-US all-out war of confrontation. [applause]
Our working people will further boost their solidarity with the entire world’s working people who love justice and peace, and discharge their historic mission in defending peace and stability of the region and accelerating mankind’s cause of independence under the idea of independence, peace, and friendship.
Only victory and glory will be in store on the road ahead of our people, who are advancing dynamically along the road of independence, th! e military-first road, and the road of socialism under respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un’s wise leadership with blessings of the great generalissimos. [applause]
Let us all single-heartedly unite around respected and beloved Marshal Kim Jong-un and firmly take hold of the party’s new simultaneous line to fight vigorously for the construction of a socialist powerful state and the fatherland’s reunification, and for the ultimate victory of the cause of the chuch’e revolution with overflowing conviction of sure victory and optimism. [applause]
Long live great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism! [applause and participants shouting hurrahs three times]
Long live the glorious WPK, the organizer and guide of all victories of our people! [applause and participants shouting hurrahs three times]
Long live May Day, the international holiday of the working people all over the world! [applause and participants shouting hurrahs three times]
Source: Korean Central Broadcasting Station, Pyongyang, in Korean 0800 gmt 01 May 13