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Officers and men of the three services and strategic rocket force of the heroic Korean People’s Army and officers and men of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces,
Members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards and Young Red Guards,
Working people across the country and Pyongyang citizens,
Compatriots in south Korea and abroad,
Comrades and friends,
Today, with a great national pride and dignity, we are holding a military parade in celebration of the centenary of the birth of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung.
This military parade, unprecedented of its kind in the history of the KPA, is a grand festival of victors, arranged by the noble intention and personal proposal of the great Comrade Kim Jong Il to glorify the immortal exploits achieved by the great Comrade Kim Il Sung in army building and demonstrate to the whole world the might of the powerful socialist Korea.
Availing myself of this significant opportunity, I would like to extend, in reflection of the boundless feeling cherished by all the service personnel and people, the highest respect and greatest glory to Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, banners of all victories, who founded and built up our revolutionary armed forces.
My respect also goes to the fighters of the anti-Japanese revolution and soldiers of the KPA, who dedicated their precious lives to the independence and sovereignty of their country and the freedom of their fellow people.
I warmly congratulate the officers and men of the KPA and the KPISF, members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards and Young Red Guards and all other people, who have greeted the meaningful anniversary days of this year with proud successes in strengthening combat capabilities and bringing about a great revolutionary upsurge by displaying an unexcelled heroic spirit and devotion at the national defence posts and construction sites of a thriving country.
I extend warm greetings to the compatriots in south Korea and abroad, who are devoting their all to the patriotic cause for achieving reunification and prosperity of their motherland, and express gratitude to the foreign friends who are rendering active support and encouragement to the just cause of our people.
Comrades,
The 100-year history of the great Kim Il Sung’s nation is a history that clearly proves the iron truth that outstanding leaders assure the self-respect and prosperity of a country and nation.
The Korean nation, though it had been proud of its 5 000-year-long history and brilliant culture, had to regard sycophancy to big countries and national ruin as its fate because it had not received correct leadership and had had no strength with which to defend itself. It was the image of our nation a century ago, the image of the miserable colonial country.
However, the 100-year history of Kim Il Sung’s nation put a final end to the history full of vicissitudes, and has raised the dignity of our country and nation to the highest level in their history.
The geopolitical position of the country is the same as ever, but the weak country of yesterday which was trodden underfoot as a theatre of wrangling among big powers to expand the sphere of their influence, has now been turned into a proud political and military power and our people are demonstrating their dignity as an independent people whom no one dares to provoke.
These miraculous changes that have taken place in the destiny of our nation are not just a fortuitous event which resulted from the lapse of time but an inevitable outcome of history brought about by the great President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, who pioneered and led the Songun revolution.
As they were led by the peerlessly great leaders, who built up the elite revolutionary armed forces, regarding giving priority to arms as the fundamentals of the revolution, our country and people could bring about radical changes in their destiny and see today’s grand festival, which will demonstrate to the whole world the strength of Songun Korea.
President Kim Il Sung, having clarified in his early years the iron truth that arms are precisely the lifeline of a nation and the victory of the revolution, founded in the forests of Paektu 80 years ago the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army made up of fine sons and daughters of the people, the first Juche-type revolutionary armed force of Korea.
With the founding of the KPRA, our people could have their own genuine army for the first time in their history, and this marked the beginning of the glorious history of the Korean revolution which would advance on the strength of arms.
Comrade Kim Il Sung, who put primary efforts into strengthening the revolutionary armed forces throughout his revolutionary career, worked military miracles of the 20th century by defeating two imperialist powers, the most ferocious forces in the world, in his generation, developed the KPA into a-match-for-a-hundred powerful revolutionary army and accomplished arming all the people and making the whole country fortified, thus providing a solid military guarantee for ensuring the sovereignty of the country and everlasting prosperity of the nation.
General Kim Jong Il, regarding carrying forward and accomplishing the Juche-oriented revolutionary cause of Songun as his lifelong mission, ushered in the golden age of the development of our revolutionary armed forces by dint of his uncommon wisdom, outstanding military commandership and matchless courage.
In the grimmest period ever witnessed in our revolution, he developed the KPA into the ranks of an elite force, ensured successive victories in the unprecedented struggle to defend socialism and performed the huge historic exploit of raising the status of our country to that of a world-class military power by administering the ever-victorious Songun politics.
Under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, our armed forces gave full play to their dignity as an army distinctive in their revolutionary character and unparalleled in their militant temperament and might.
The course of proud struggle traversed by our revolutionary armed forces has witnessed do-or-die showdowns with imperialist powers and grand construction campaigns for laying eternal foundations for the country’s prosperity.
In the course of this, our revolutionary armed forces have remained boundlessly faithful to their first and foremost mission as a genuine army of the leader and the Party, and lived up to the expectations of the country and people with credit.
The noble spirit of defending the leader unto death, created by the anti-Japanese guerrillas, has been the absolute motto of our army and the source of its mental strength and combat efficiency, as well as a precious tradition for the later generations.
The KPA has been the first to hold up the banner of death-defying defence of the leaders and has taken the lead in staunchly safeguarding the lifeline of the Juche revolution in days of both glory and trials; this constitutes the greatest of exploits it has performed for the revolution.
The history of our army, which made its start with two pistols and has developed into a matchless force that terrifies the imperialist aggressors, is unprecedented in the world history of army building.
In the long period from its founding to the present, it fought a guerrilla war, a regular war and a showdown without gunshot; in the course of this, it has acquired all-powerful, Juche-oriented combat methods and accumulated experiences in achieving only victory, and developed into powerful armed forces possessed of the means of both attack and defence of our own style that are fully capable of coping with modern warfare of any type.
The military and technological edge is no longer the monopoly of imperialists, and the era is gone forever when the enemy would threaten us with atomic bombs. Today’s grand military demonstration will be clear proof of this.
Since the very day when it was named after people, the KPA, as the defender of the country and artist of people’s happiness, has left remarkable traces in the building of a prosperous and powerful country.
The monumental edifices that have sprung up in all parts of the country and the numerous socialist assets that render a contribution to people’s living are all permeated with the precious blood and sweat of our service personnel.
The powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu with great pride in being the army of the leader, the Party and the people and with invincible might is the most important heritage that the great generalissimos left for their beloved country, and to have such valuable inheritance is a great blessing and a source of pride for our Party and people.
The heroic KPA which recorded only victories has assured the glorious 100-year history of Juche Korea, and this constitutes a sure guarantee for the everlasting history of Kim Il Sung’s nation, Kim Jong Il’s Korea.
Shining for all eternity in the history of our motherland will be the sacred revolutionary careers and immortal exploits of President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il who opened the new history of national independence by blazing the trail fraught with hardships for the Songun revolution and laid a solid basis for the prosperity of the country and for the happiness of all the generations to come.
Comrades,
Today we stand at the watershed in history marking the start of a new century of the Juche era.
Now is a responsible and important period requiring us who learned the revolution from General Kim Jong Il to be more energetic than any other time.
The 4th Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the 5th Session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly, historic meetings held a few days ago, acclaimed General Kim Jong Il as the eternal leader of our revolution, as the eternal General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission of our Republic.
This is an expression of the unshakeable will of our Party, army and people to inherit and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered on Mt. Paektu without any deviation and without any concession as the President and the General did, holding aloft the great banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism.
The permanent strategy of our revolution and its final victory lie in going straight along the road of independence, the road of Songun, the road of socialism, indicated by President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il.
If we are to add eternal glory to the dignity of Songun Korea and bring to successful completion the cause of building a thriving socialist country, we should, above all else, strengthen the KPA in every way.
The KPA should remain reliable vanguard and solid cornerstone of the Songun revolution, which is ready to blaze the trail under the leadership of the Party and firmly guarantee its cause by force of arms.
What cannot be changed even though the times may elapse and one generation may be replaced by another is the original revolutionary form of our army which bears resemblance to President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il and the fighting mode of the revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu which advances holding high the red flag of the Workers’ Party as its first banner.
The KPA should intensify the movement for winning the title of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment as required by the developing situation, so as to turn itself into today’s 7th Regiment which is fully equipped with the spirit of becoming human rifles and bombs, a spirit cherished by the anti-Japanese guerrillas.
It should thoroughly apply our Party’s Juche-oriented military ideas and lines to its military and political work and establish more firmly the revolutionary command system, so as to become an integral whole, which is ideologically pure and highly organized and which shares the Party’s ideology, breathes the same breath with it and keeps pace with it.
It should conduct training more intensively as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did on Mt. Paektu, so as to prepare all its officers and men to be fully-ready combatants, who have acquired the ever-victorious
Kim Il Sung’s and Kim Jong Il’s strategies and tactics, mode of bold attack and all-round practical abilities, and perfect its regular aspects as befits an elite revolutionary force which is strong in discipline and excellent within and without.
The entire army having become an entity of comrades-in-arms and all the service personnel and people having formed a harmonious whole around the Party–this is the real might of the KPA, and herein lies the main key to strengthening its military strength.
Upholding the slogan “Let all the service personnel become true comrades-in-arms!” the KPA should give fuller scope to the traditional trait of unity between officers and men, and the entire army should become a unit of comrades-in-arms, who share blood and life on the road of the Songun revolution.
Officers and men are all valuable comrades-in-arms of the Supreme Commander. What I believe is not any of the modern military hardware, like guns or rockets, but the dear rank-and-file soldiers; the Supreme Commander as well as officers exists for them.
All the officers should take warm care of their men with the feeling of their eldest brothers and sisters and as their true comrades-in-arms, and make it their habit to make devoted efforts until their shoes are worn out.
Army-people unity is the roots of our society and the great foundation of the Songun revolution.
By inheriting the traditions of the anti-Japanese guerrilla army, the KPA should always take the lead and be a forerunner in consolidating the great army-people unity.
It should continue to hold high the slogan “Help the people!” set forth by General Kim Jong Il.
Officers and men of the KPA should fulfil the duty of the army of the people by doing many more things for the benefit of the people with a feeling of doing them for their own parents and brothers and of taking care of their own homes.
It is a firm determination of our Party to ensure that our people, who are the best in the world and who have remained faithful to the Party in the face of all manner of difficulties, do not have to tighten their belts again, but enjoy all the benefits of socialism.
We should cultivate with care the valuable seeds, which the great General sowed for the building of an economic power and the improvement of the people’s standard of living, and bring them to brilliant fruition.
Single-hearted unity and invincible military might plus the industrial revolution in the new century is just the thriving socialist country.
By making the flames of the industrial revolution in the new century and the flames of Hamnam flare up more fiercely, we should take the road of building an economic power in a comprehensive way.
Officers and men of the KPA should continuously display the might of the powerful revolutionary army, which does not know the word impossible, and make breakthroughs in the great upsurge on all the major fronts for the building of an economic power and improving of the people’s standard of living.
All the officials, Party members and other working people should raise the wind of achieving great innovations and upsurge for leaping forward from one decade to another on all the fronts of socialist construction, taking their cue from the mettle of fighting and way of creating of the KPA that never fails to see what it does through to the finish at a go once it is determined.
Peace is very valuable for our Party and the government of the DPRK that are making efforts to attain the general goal of building a thriving nation and improving the people’s living standards. But, more valuable for us are the nation’s dignity and the country’s independence.
In order to reliably safeguard the dignity and independence of our Republic and assure genuine peace and the country’s security, all the officers and men of the KPA should firmly defend our Party’s cause of building a thriving nation by force of arms, always preserving its revolutionary nature and maintaining full combat readiness.
It is, indeed, heartrending that our compatriots who lived as a homogeneous nation in the same territory for long have suffered the pain of division for nearly 70 years.
Our Party and the government of the DPRK will join hands with anyone who sincerely wishes the reunification of the country and peace and prosperity of the nation, and make responsible and persevering efforts to realize the historic cause of the country’s reunification.
Comrades,
Our cause is just, and the strength of Korea fostered by truth is inexhaustible.
As President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, who live in the hearts of all the service personnel of the KPA and the people across the country, wish our bright future, and as we have the matchless revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu, the invincible great army-people unity and the faithful people who support the cause of the Party with conscience and the sense of obligation, we are sure to emerge victorious.
I will always be a comrade-in-arms of my comrades, sharing the same destiny with them on the sacred road of the Songun revolution and, true to the behests of General Kim Jong Il, fulfil the responsibility I have assumed for the country and the revolution.
Let us all fight vigorously united firmly in one mind and one will as befit the descendants of President
Kim Il Sung and the soldiers and devoted followers of General Kim Jong Il.
The flags bearing the beaming images of President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il will flutter forever in the van of our revolutionary ranks that achieve only victory and glory, always inspiring us to fresh victories.
Forward towards the final victory!
