Conversations with the South Korean Delegates To the High-Level Political Talks
between North and South Korea
May 3 and November 3, 1972
1. ON THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF NATIONAL REUNIFICATION
I am glad to meet you today.
I am highly delighted and also deeply moved that we, fellow countrymen, have met after a long separation because of the division of the nation.
You say that you have come to discuss the question of national reunification in spite of everything. Your action is very courageous and daring. It is very gratifying that the south Korean authorities have decided to participate in north-south political talks and have sent you to represent them. We warmly welcome this step.
In my speech of August 6 last year, I made it clear that we are ready to make contact with all political parties including the Democratic Republican Party, social organizations and individuals of south Korea at any time. A few days after my speech, the south Korean side responded, agreeing to hold north-south Red Cross talks. Thus began the preliminary talks between the Red Cross organizations of the north and the south, which led to the high-level north-south political discussion.
The doors for contacts and dialogues have now been opened between the north and the south, which have stood alienated from each other for a long time and it has become possible for high-level representatives to meet and exchange views with an open mind. This is a tremendous step towards the solution of the reunification question.
At present the whole nation desires the reunification of the country. Today nothing is more urgent for the Korean people than national reunification. If we fail to reunify the country as soon as possible and allow national division to continue, our nation may become a plaything of the great powers and be divided into two forever.
The most important factor which characterizes a nation is the community of language and culture. Even people of the same descent cannot be regarded as belonging to the same nation if they use different spoken and written languages and their cultures and customs differ. Now, because our country has been divided for a long time, the language, as well as the culture and way of life, is already changing in the north and the south. The longer the division of the nation, the greater the difference in the language and way of life will be.
After liberation some people in the northern half of the country insisted that the Korean alphabet should be reformed. But I opposed it. If we carry out an alphabet reform when the country is not reunified, the Korean people will be divided in two forever. So I told the linguists at the time that if ever an alphabet reform was to be introduced it should be done after the reunification of the country, but never before reunification. If either side were to carry out an alphabet reform while the country is divided, the north and the south would come to use different letters. In that case, our nation would be divided into two nations once and for all.
We cannot tolerate that the Korean nation should be split into two forever. We should reunify the country as soon as possible and hand over a unified country to posterity. If we end national division and achieve reunification, our country can become a powerful state with a population of 50 million, a brilliant national culture, and a powerful national economy, which no one will dare provoke.
In order to reunify the country, it is necessary to establish the fundamental principles correctly, which can provide the basis for the solution of the reunification question. This is most important.
Only when there are fundamental principles agreed upon by the north and the south, can the two sides make joint efforts for reunification and successfully solve all problems concerning it.
I believe that our reunification question should on all accounts be settled independently without foreign interference and peacefully on the principle of promoting great national unity.
First, national reunification should be achieved independently without reliance on outside forces and free from their interference.
Solving the reunification question independently on the principle of self-determination of the people is the principled stand which has always been maintained by the Government of our Republic.
If we depend on outside forces we cannot solve this problem. The question of Korean reunification is entirely an internal affair of our country. If we try to solve this internal affair by relying on outside forces instead of settling it on our own, it is shameful for our nation.
Some people are now trying to solve the reunification problem with guarantees afforded by big powers. This is a great mistake. The imperialist powers do not want to see our country reunified. By nature, they like division and attempt to divide other countries and peoples by all possible means, because it is difficult to rule them when they are united. Therefore, we should on no account rely on the great powers in settling the reunification question. If contacts are established and talks are held within our nation, we can remove distrust and misunderstanding and achieve national unity and reunification. Why then should we ask for the help of great powers?
We should not tolerate foreign interference in the internal affairs of Korea under any circumstances. No foreign force has the right to meddle in Korean affairs, and while there is foreign interference the question of national reunification cannot be solved in keeping with the desire and interests of our nation. The reunification of the country should be achieved by the Korean people themselves free from any foreign interference.
You say that the south Korean authorities are also opposed to foreign interference and intend to settle the question of national reunification independently without US and Japanese involvement, and pledge that you will never become a stooge of the United States or Japan. If this is true, it is excellent.
If we are to reject foreign intervention and reunify the country independently, we must categorically oppose flunkeyism towards great powers.
I always tell our officials that, if a man takes to flunkeyism, he will become a fool; if a nation falls into flunkeyism, the country will be ruined; and if a party adopts flunkeyism, it will make a mess of the revolution and construction. If a man wants to be an independent being, he must never adopt flunkeyism which means worshipping others blindly.
As our country is geographically located in the midst of big countries, flunkeyism has played a great part in the history of our people. It hampered the advance of our people in building a new society after liberation. So we have fought tirelessly against it.
Let me take an example from the days after liberation. Immediately after liberation there were quite a few people who had been affected with flunkeyism even amongst those who called themselves communists. In Seoul at that time, a fellow, Pak Hon Yong by name, claimed that he would make our country a member republic of another country. This had a very bad influence on the south Korean people and greatly hindered the settlement of the reunification question. On hearing his words, some people were afraid that our country was going to be subjugated again to a foreign country. In my speech before the people, therefore, I said that we would build a democratic society of a Korean type, not a Soviet or American type, in the interests of the Korean nation.
When we advanced the policy of agricultural cooperativization in the postwar years, a number of people tried to discredit it. Some asked how we could cooperativize agriculture when our industry had been devastated, claiming that European countries with developed industries had not yet undertaken full-scale agricultural cooperativization. Since flunkeyists used to accept willingly what people from large countries said, I refuted their argument with the words of Lenin. Lenin had said that a communal economy established by a simple merger of peasants’ lands and farm implements would be superior to a private economy. So I said that our Party’s policy of agricultural cooperativization was in accord with Leninism and was to meet the requirement of our particular situation. I asked them how it could be that agricultural cooperativization after industrialization was the only correct way. In the end, they admitted that our view was correct.
At that time, the circumstances of our peasants, in fact, were such that they were unable to survive unless they united their efforts through cooperativization. The war had devastated agriculture, and the peasants were short of draught cattle and farm implements. This was also true of rich farmers. In this context, we ensured that peasants organized cooperatives on the principle of voluntary membership and ran them by their united efforts. Basically, we Koreans like to pool our efforts and help one another. Traditionally, our people have good customs. For instance, if a neighbour has a wedding, the whole village offers the family contributions and various other kinds of aid, calling on them to congratulate them and pass a pleasant time with them. In the postwar years, there were not many modern farm machines in our country. But we were able to cooperativize agriculture rather smoothly in a short time because life itself urgently demanded it and the peasants supported the cooperative policy actively.
In establishing economic relations with other countries, we have thoroughly rejected flunkeyist tendencies and held fast to an independent stand.
We have not tolerated any relations which could result in our economic dependence on other countries. We have established and developed economic relations with them on the principle of defending the national economy thoroughly, on the principle of complete equality. In our trade with developed socialist countries, we have made sure that we give them raw materials they need only when they give us those which we need, and that we buy their machines only on condition that they buy ours. If this principle was not maintained in our economic relations with developed countries when our technology is not yet very highly developed, we would have to keep supplying raw materials to them and buying manufactured goods. This would end in leaving only empty mountains riddled with holes in our country. We cannot hand down such mountains to our posterity, can we?
We worked hard not to be economically subordinated to another country, that is, to be self-supporting in the economy. If a people do not achieve economic independence through the building of an independent national economy, they cannot hope to raise the external authority of their country and to have a say in the international arena. Since we have pursued an independent policy in the sphere of economic construction and built an independent national economy, nobody dare apply pressure on us.
In the past the worship of great powers was most obvious in the field of literature and the arts, and we waged a resolute fight against this.
Some of the writers and artists worshipped European literature and art and produced works which were neither to the liking of the Koreans nor understandable to them. Once there were poets who worshipped Pushkin and musicians who adored Tchaikovsky. In creating an opera, these people patterned it on Italian ones. Flunkeyism was so rampant that some artists drew foreign landscapes instead of our beautiful mountains and rivers. During the Fatherland Liberation War I visited a hospital where I found a picture of a Siberian landscape. It showed a bear crawling about the snow-covered ground under a large tree. So, I severely criticized the people concerned. I told them: “There are many renowned mountains such as Mts. Kumgang and Myohyang. Why did you hang that kind of picture instead of a beautiful Korean landscape? What is the good of hanging such a picture in educating our people?”
The Korean people have a brilliant culture and have lived in the beautiful land of three thousand ri for a long time. They will live in our beautiful homeland in the future, too. They cannot live in Siberia or in Europe. Therefore, our literature and art should, on all accounts, serve the education of our people in patriotic spirit. Internationalism cannot exist apart from patriotism. He who does not love his own country cannot be true to internationalism. Koreans do not like European artistic works. They do not want to see artistic works which are not to their liking. We do not need works which Koreans do not like and which are not congenial with their national feeling. That is why I defined literature and art of socialist realism as being national in form and socialist in content.
We conducted the struggle against flunkeyism by means of ideological struggle, theoretical struggle to root out flunkeyist ideas which remained in the minds of people. Through many years of struggle against flunkeyism, we were able to eradicate it completely and hold fast to Independence in all spheres of the revolution and construction.
In our attempts to solve the question of national reunification, we must strongly oppose the tendency of flunkeyism to rely on foreigners, rather than believing in the strength of our own nation. We must reunify the country independently by the united efforts of the Korean nation.
Second, great national unity should be promoted by transcending the differences in ideas, ideals and systems.
The question of our country’s reunification is not one of who prevails over whom. It is one of attaining the unity of a nation which has been divided by an outside force and achieving national sovereignty. In order to reunify the country, therefore, it is essential to proceed from endeavours to achieve unity between the north and the south and promote great national unity.
In order to promote this, the north and the south must transcend their ideas and systems and refrain from pursuing hostile policies towards each other.
At present different ideas and systems exist in the two parts of our country. In this situation, the north and the south should not try to impose their ideas and systems upon each other. We do not intend to impose the socialist system and communist ideology on south Korea. Neither should the south Korean authorities insist on “reunification by prevailing over communism” nor demand that we desist from communism. In other words, they should discard their “anti-communist” slogans.
The north and the south should discard hostile policies which obstruct unity, and combine their efforts to find common ground. If each side does not endeavour to find common ground but opposes the other side and argues about things of the past in an attempt to justify itself, the gap between the two sides will grow wider and wider and the reunification of the country will be delayed still further. This would be a grave crime against the country and the nation.
In our opinion, it is quite possible to find a common ground if the north and the south work together, basing themselves on a sincere desire for unity. We have worked hard to discover this common ground in order to hasten the country’s reunification.
Recently, the south Korean authorities have been talking about “self-help”, “self-reliance” and “self-defence”. We consider that it is possible to find some common factors here. We think that their “self-help”, “self-reliance” and “self-defence” may have some points in common with the independent policies of our Party and the Government of the Republic. The country’s reunification will be hastened if the north and the south discover, one by one, what common grounds exist between them and achieve their unity on this basis.
In achieving the great unity of the nation it is important to remove misunderstanding and mistrust between north and south.
Our country has been divided for so long that there are a number of points on which the north and the south differ from each other andmisunderstand and mistrust each other. As long as the two sides misunderstand and distrust each other, there cannot be genuine national unity. A family cannot be formed without deep trust between husband and wife. Even in the case of husband and wife, if they do not trust each other, they cannot live together and, in the long run, they will have to divorce. The north and the south should strive to eliminate mutual misunderstanding and mistrust.
To this end, the authorities and many personages of the two parts of the country should make frequent contact with each other and hold dialogues in good faith. If they get together and discuss any matters frankly and seriously, misunderstanding will be removed and mutual trust will be deepened.
Through our dialogue with you on this occasion, the misunderstanding between the north and the south has already been alleviated to a considerable extent. The dialogue between the north and the south should have been held earlier.
We thought that the south Korean authorities were going to be lackeys of US imperialism and Japanese militarism and sell out the country. But you say that this will never be the case. You also say that the south Korean authorities will neither bring Japanese militarists into south Korea again nor sell out the country as the lackeys of the United States and Japan, and request us over and over again to believe it. So we can believe you and eliminate our past distrust.
The south Korean authorities say that they have had the misconception that we are going to “invade the south” and “communize” south Korea. But we have no intention of doing these things. We have declared on many occasions that we have no intention of “invading the south”. We reaffirm this to you today. As for “communization”, we do not intend to “communize” south Korea nor could it be “communized” even if we tried to. Therefore, I think that you can now dispel the misunderstanding you have had because of the alleged “invasion of the south” and “communization”. If we remove our misunderstanding and deepen trust through contacts and dialogues in this way, we shall be able to achieve great national unity regardless of the differences in ideas and ideals, systems and religious beliefs.
Another important factor in achieving great national unity is that the north and the south should refrain from abusing and slandering each other.
To achieve unity and cooperation, both sides should respect each other rather than resort to abuse and slander. If they continue abusing and slandering each other as they do now, the north and the south will not get on close terms but, instead, the gap will widen. That is why they should first stop abusing and slandering each other.
Achieving economic cooperation between the north and the south is also very important in attaining great national unity.
The northern half of the Republic is rich in natural resources and has a developed heavy industry. South Korea has some foundations of light industry from the past. If the north and the south effect economic cooperation and meet each other’s needs, they will be better able to solve immediate economic problems, and develop the national economy rapidly by their own efforts without introducing foreign capital. If the national economy is developed through north-south cooperation, our nation will be better off than Japan or any other countries that are said to be developed.
The north and the south should advance jointly in external relations, too. Only then will we be able to demonstrate the unity of our nation.
We consider that the north and the south will be able to promote great national unity in spite of the differences in their ideas and systems, political views and religious beliefs, if they all take a patriotic attitude and stand for national reunification. At present, even those countries and nations which have different ideas and systems, are on friendly terms and get along well together. And there is no reason why the differences in ideas and systems should prevent our nation, which is of the same blood, from uniting and cooperating.
Whether one believes in communism, nationalism or capitalism must not be an obstacle to great national unity. We are not opposed to the nationalists and capitalists in south Korea. The majority of the south Korean capitalists are national capitalists.
We have been pursuing a policy of protecting national capitalists.
For the sake of national reunification, we will unite and cooperate with the people of all backgrounds in south Korea including nationalists and national capitalists.
Third, national reunification should be achieved by peaceful means without resorting to arms.
The north and the south, one and the same nation, must not fight against each other. We must reunify the divided country peacefully without fail. If peaceful reunification fails and another war breaks out in Korea, our nation will suffer catastrophes.
At present the great powers of the world want to get on well with one another, refraining from quarrelling. Some time ago US President Nixon visited China and said that it would be desirable to abstain from quarrelling with each other and maintain peace for the space of one generation. After inspecting the Great Wall of China, he even said that no barrier should divide the people of the world. In the joint statement of China and the United States published as a result of Nixon’s visit to China, the United States approved the five principles of peace which it had so far refused to recognize. It is good that the United States approved these principles. Needless to say, we shall have to wait and see how the Americans will put their words into action. More often than not the imperialists go back on their word. So there is no knowing clearly if Nixon spoke sincerely or not in China.
Commenting on Nixon’s trip to China, our Rodong Sinmun wrote: “If Nixon’s words uttered after inspecting the Great Wall are serious, why does he not make efforts to remove the Military Demarcation Line which runs across the central part of our country and to withdraw the US soldiers who are swaggering about, wearing steel-helmets with the inscribed ‘MP’?” I think this comment is valid.
Nowadays, the big powers of the world are trying to abstain from quarrelling and get on harmoniously with one another. Then why should one and the same nation fall out with itself? As the same nation, we must not quarrel among ourselves. We must reunify the country by peaceful means.
If the country is to be reunified peacefully without conflict between the north and the south, it is imperative, first of all, to reduce the armies of both sides. On several occasions, I have said in my open speeches that the armies of the north and the south ought to be reduced considerably.
Reduction of the armies is the way to ease tension between the two sides and to lessen the military burdens. The present military burdens of the two sides are very heavy.
We must work together to remove the Military Demarcation Line which divides our country into north and south.
The danger of war cannot be removed in the present situation when large armed forces of both sides confront each other across the Military Demarcation Line. In such a situation, if the commander of a regiment or a division stationed in the area along this demarcation line opens fire by mistake at a place, both sides will begin to exchange fire, and this could lead to war. This is very dangerous.
If in the future the north and the south give guarantees against the use of armed forces between them through sincere consultation, and put this into practice, their military equipment and personnel deployed in the areas on the Military Demarcation Line will become unnecessary and the line itself can be eliminated.
At present, the north and the south say their armies are for self-defence. However, they should not undertake “self-defence” against each other. They must work together to defend themselves against foreign invasion.
The defence of our Republic is always meant to oppose foreign aggression against our nation. We will never tolerate the aggression of outside forces against our country and people.
When the US imperialists sent their armed spy ship Pueblo into the territorial waters of our Republic, the naval forces of our People’s Army captured it. This was a legitimate self-defence measure of our People’s Army whose mission is to defend their country. But instead of apologizing to us, the Americans threatened us by bringing large forces including the aircraft carrier Enterprise to the East Sea. It was a flagrant infringement of and a grave challenge to our nation’s sovereignty. We did not yield to the Americans’ threat and pressure. They attempted to start a war by mobilizing large forces, so we made a firm determination to fight against them. Seeing that we did not succumb to their threat and pressure, they desisted from starting a war and fled. Had they unleashed war at that time our nation would have gone through another war and the authorities of the north and the south could not have met and had a peaceful talk like this one today.
If any foreigners invade our land in the future, the north and the south must unite and repulse the invaders. When all the Korean people unite their strength, they will certainly smash any aggressor.
We must eliminate military confrontation and ease tension between the north and the south by our joint efforts, so that we can prevent another war in Korea and achieve the peaceful reunification of the country.
Through the recent talks we have found important common grounds between the north and the south and reached an agreement regarding the most important problems.
The three principles of realizing independent reunification without outside interference, achieving great national unity by transcending differences in ideas, ideals and systems, and reunifying the divided land by peaceful means without recourse to armed force, are the starting point of and the basis for the solution of our reunification question.
You have agreed to solve the reunification question on the three principles, and you say the highest authorities of south Korea will also agree. So we can say we have reached complete agreement on the three principles of national reunification.
I am very pleased that the three principles of national reunification have been agreed upon between the north and the south in our talks today.
The three principles of national reunification upon which the north and the south agreed through joint consultation are absolutely fair principles which will enable our nation to solve the reunification question in conformity with its aspirations and demand. We must reunify our country on these three principles. You have pledged that you will take them as the basis for your future actions. If you do so, other problems concerning the solution of the reunification question can also be settled successfully and our nation’s reunification will be achieved at an early date.
Now that the basic principles of reunification have been agreed upon, we must find concrete ways of putting them into effect to unite the whole nation and reunify our country. We must always proceed from the three principles in seeking concrete ways for national reunification. When the north and the south consider the matter carefully and sincerely consult each other on the basis of the three principles of independence, great national unity and peaceful reunification, they will be able to find the successful path towards reunification.
To find the reasonable way towards the independent and peaceful reunification of the country, we have to develop further political consultations between the north and the south and carry on contacts and dialogues more actively.
I think that political consultations have already begun through the meetings and talks held on this occasion between the high-ranking representatives of the north and the south. North-south political consultations having been started, we must develop them so as to bear good fruit.
You have come to Pyongyang first, so I should like to send our representatives to Seoul in return. I think that if mutual trust increases and various conditions mature in the process of frequent visits of representatives from the north and the south, summit talks will also become possible.
In the future representatives of the north and the south must exchange frequent visits and hold a great many talks.
The misunderstanding and distrust created between the north and the south during the nearly 30 year-long division after liberation cannot be eliminated through one or two contacts and dialogues. One or two meetings and consultations will not be enough to discover all the concrete ways for the solution of the reunification question. Through these talks we have solved fundamental problems upon which the north and the south misunderstood each other and have found important common grounds, but many problems are yet to be solved to reunify the country. These problems can be solved only through frequent contacts and sincere consultations between representatives of both sides.
In the north-south negotiations and consultations, the points of mutual misunderstanding and all other problems concerning national reunification must be discussed. Any dissenting opinions must be aired frankly for discussion. If they are kept to oneself, the differences cannot be solved. Any misunderstanding, however insignificant, must be discussed openly and settled promptly.
North-south negotiations must proceed from the principle of deepening mutual understanding, finding common points and increasing their unity. Our representatives and yours may advance different views in seeking the path to national reunification. So they may argue for the justness of their own views. But the arguments should always be intended for finding common grounds and achieving unity and reunification, not for division.
I think it reasonable to organize and run a north-south joint commission or the like in order to coordinate north-south relations correctly and successfully solve various problems regarding the reunification of the country.
Coordinating work should be conducted in practice by organizing a joint commission. If only general talks are held, great progress cannot be made in bringing about national unity and reunification.
The joint commission can be co-chaired by persons in high authority appointed respectively by the authorities of the north and the south and be composed of the necessary members. It takes only a little time to fly between Pyongyang and Seoul. So, the commission can be run by you coming over to Pyongyang and our people going to Seoul.
Once the joint commission is formed, there will be many problems to be settled by it. It should quickly discuss and settle various problems arising from the relations between north and south, including the problem of one side refraining from slandering the other side and the problem of preventing military conflicts. At the joint commission one side should not force its will upon the other; problems raised should be discussed seriously until mutual understanding is reached to conform with the purpose of unity.
A direct telephone line may be installed between Pyongyang and Seoul, by which to discuss problems at any time. If even a minor problem which may hamper national reunification or cause misunderstanding between both sides arises, it is necessary to deal with it at once by telephone, talk it over and settle it promptly.
The three principles of national reunification agreed upon this time between north and south serve as a reunification programme to be put into effect jointly by the entire Korean nation. I think it a good idea to make these three principles public, so that the entire Korean people and the world’s people will know them.
The publication of the three principles of national reunification is good both for the education of our people and for demonstrating the unity of the Korean nation to the world. If we publish the reunification programme agreed upon between north and south, all compatriots at home and abroad will have a consensus of opinion, being aware that we are going to reunify the divided country independently and peacefully on the principle of great national unity, and all sections of the people will derive great encouragement from it. When we publish the joint reunification programme of the nation, the world’s people will know that the Korean people are a great united people and the foreign forces opposed to our country’s reunification will clearly understand that they will never be able to divide the Korean nation permanently, however hard they may try.
As for when and how we should publish the three principles of national reunification, it had better be discussed in the course of the forthcoming dialogue. I think it will do to publish it when an agreement is reached at another meeting of the delegates of both sides after the matter is taken up by the south Korean authorities upon your return to Seoul.
Since you took the trouble to come to Pyongyang, you should stay another day and have talks with our officials.
Your visiting us is a patriotic deed. Man should be a patriot, not a quisling. Man should do things which are beneficial to his country and people even if he lives for only a day. Only such a life is glorious and worthwhile.
We can say that the current north-south talks were a success. I hope that you will come to Pyongyang frequently from now on.
2. ON ACHIEVING NORTH-SOUTH COOPERATION
It gives me pleasure to meet you south Korean delegates again. Last time one delegate came alone from the south Korean side. But this time you have come together. If the north and the south have frequent contacts of this kind, it will greatly assist towards the settlement of the question of national reunification, I think.
There was some progress in the work for national reunification after the publication of the North-South Joint Statement. In the past our people, torn apart in the north and the south, were even unable to meet each other. But, today delegates visit each other to hold discussions. This is already progress. If delegates of the north and the south visit and meet each other frequently, get acquainted and exchange views with each other, they can settle many problems for national reunification.
We must reunify the country as soon as possible at all costs. If we fail to reunify the country and keep it divided, our nation will remain partitioned for ever.
Our nation must not be divided in two. Koreans have lived as a single nation on one and the same territory from remote times. Our people are of one and the same blood and have one culture and history. The Korean people have a strong national spirit and a high national pride. Having occupied our country for 36 years, the Japanese imperialists even forced the Koreans to change their surnames in Japanese style, claiming that “Japan and Korea are one”. But they could not succeed in making Japanese of the Koreans. How can such a nation be divided in two today? We must not allow our nation to be split but must reunify the country without fail within our generation.
Brothers in both the north and the south must have the same desire for national reunification. I believe that you are visiting us because you, too, wish national reunification.
But, in spite of the North-South Joint Statement, “confrontation accompanied with dialogue” and “competition accompanied with dialogue” are being voiced as always by the press in south Korea. Confrontation or competition literally means contending with each other for victory. In that case, there will be a winner and a loser. Contending with another country or another nation might be a different matter. But one and the same nation should not engage in confrontation and competition. If this is done, it will be impossible to achieve national union and reunification.
The north and the south must cooperate, instead of engaging in confrontation and competition. Cooperation implies united efforts and joint work. Since the north-south dialogue has begun, I think it is time for cooperation now. The north and the south must not confine themselves to dialogue, but must go one step forward to cooperation.
When the north and the south cooperate with each other, the strength of the nation will grow as a result, and solid foundations for national reunification will be laid. Only when they work together, can they overcome all their difficulties successfully and achieve the cause of reunification, the greatest national desire, sooner.
The north and the south should cooperate, to begin with, in the economic field.
If they begin with economic cooperation and work together step by step, they will be able to remove misunderstandings and understand each other better. If they merely say they trust each other, it will be impossible to know who has what in his mind. When working together, they will resolve misunderstood problems, trust each other better and achieve national unity.
Our country has a large population and rich natural resources. North-south cooperation will enable us to develop our national economy rapidly and make our country rich and strong. Economic cooperation between the two parts of the country will resolve the problem of the people’s living conditions better, and our people will lead as happy a life as any others.
There is every potential for this economic cooperation. The north and the south can exploit mineral resources jointly, develop the division of labour and interchange and jointly use the results of scientific and technological researches.
The northern half of the Republic is very rich in mineral resources; deposits of iron ore, in particular, are immeasurable.
The Japanese imperialists are said to have plundered a great deal of our resources in the past. But they just licked the rind of a watermelon, so to speak. Our prospecting workers have discovered large iron ore deposits in the places where the Japanese imperialists said there was nothing. An iron ore deposit with an estimated amount of hundreds of millions of tons was recently discovered in Kaechon district and another with thousands of millions of tons was also found in South Hwanghae Province. There are colossal iron ore deposits in Phungsan and other northern inland areas. This is more than ten billion tons even according to the preliminary estimate made by our prospectors.
The quality of our iron ore is very high. All of it contains over 35 per cent of iron. This indicates that it is of good quality by world standards. At present the Japanese envy us our iron ore.
The northern half of the country abounds, not only in iron ore, but also in other mineral resources such as lead, zinc and copper. In former days the Japanese imperialists claimed that there was no nickel in our country. However, we found it for ourselves later and are producing a great deal of alloys.
It is said that south Korea is building industry, but I presume that there are problems in supplying the raw materials it needs. You may import them, but why buy them from far-off foreign countries, when our country has inexhaustible resources? If the north and the south join hands and develop the abundant mineral resources, it will be possible to develop the metal and engineering industries and many other branches, without going to the trouble of importing raw materials.
We can increase the economic power of the nation only when we rely on our own raw materials in developing the engineering industry. Since immediately after liberation we have exerted great efforts to develop the engineering industry. The result is that it is on a very high level of development now. We can only maintain economic relations with other countries on an equal footing and improve the people’s living standards when we develop the engineering industry and make machines for export. At present we export lorries, tractors and many other machines, and there is a large demand for them.
There are also abundant aquatic resources in the northern half of the Republic.
Every year 5-6 million tons of pollack swarm into our East Sea. This is the figure estimated by scientists and the exact amount still remains unknown. It is said that when their swarming is at its height, the shoal is 3 000 metres wide and 5 000 metres long and the depth is incalculable. Although such a tremendous number of pollack rush in, shoal after shoal, we are in a position to catch only 600 000 tons at most. This means that we catch only 10 per cent of the fish that surge in. According to scientists, the resources of pollack do not shrink even if up to 50 per cent are caught. Therefore, we may catch 2.5 million tons of pollack in our East Sea every year. If the fishermen in the north and the south pool their resources, it is possible to catch a great number of them. This will enable them all to prosper.
We deem it necessary that the north and the south divide work in the economic sphere. If the economy is developed through division of production between the north and the south, one producing this and the other producing that, this will markedly lighten the burdens of both sides and give them much benefit economically.
We should bring about north-south cooperation in the cultural sphere, too.
This alone will enable the Korean people to preserve their peculiar national traits as a homogeneous people and will ensure the uniform development of our national culture.
The north and the south should cooperate in the sphere of linguistics and develop our national language in a unified way. When people from both parts of the country meet and speak to each other, they find many words incomprehensible, and this sometimes causes misunderstandings between them. If the north-south language gap is enlarged, national division cannot be avoided. We should wholeheartedly prevent the language differences from causing our nation to be split into two different nations. Linguists in the north and the south should cooperate with each other in their research and development work for ensuring the unity of the spoken and written language. When they get together and discuss, they will be able to keep the virtues of our language alive and to develop them further.
In the sphere of science, too, the north and the south should carry out exchanges and cooperation. In the two zones there are many talented scientists. In one scientific branch the scientists in the north may be better informed than those in the south; and in another scientific branch the latter may be better informed. Therefore, if the scientists in the two zones combine their strength and wisdom, they can achieve great success in scientific research and rapidly develop our country into a modern industrial state.
We should also bring about cooperation in the field of sports. If the north and the south cooperate in this sphere, they can achieve fine results in international contests. Our sportsmen register excellent results in international events even when taking part in them separately. If the north and the south form a single team and enter international games jointly, they will be able to attain supremacy. Basically, the Korean people have a strong fighting spirit. This is well known to the people of the world. In international events our sportsmen win games more often through their fighting spirit than through their technique. In future, we must see to it that a single team is formed with excellent players selected from the two zones to participate in Olympic and other international games.
The north and the south should cooperate with each other not only in the economic and cultural fields but also in the political domain.
Economic and cultural cooperation should naturally develop into political cooperation. Only when we cooperate with each other politically, can we effectively cooperate in both the economic and cultural fields.
You and we differ from each other in the methods of viewing things. So there will be difference in views in realizing cooperation. You look into each of the problems separately as if they were isolated. But we study things from the viewpoint that they are all interrelated, acting upon one another. All fields of society including politics, the economy, culture and military matters are related to one another and develop through interaction. This is a law of social movement. No social problem can be solved properly unless it is viewed in its relation to other problems. If political questions are to be settled, economic and cultural problems should be resolved and vice versa.
If the north and the south do not cooperate politically, their economic and cultural cooperation cannot be realized effectively, even though both sides wish this.
For instance, the problem of finding families and relatives separated in the north and the south now under discussion at the talks between the Red Cross organizations of the north and the south appears to be a simple question at first, but it cannot be settled easily so long as political distrust exists between both sides.
It is said that among the representatives from south Korea at the time of the north-south Red Cross talks there was one person who had a relative in the north. I was told that, when our officials asked him to meet his relative over here, he had declined to do so, saying that he would meet him later. I think this was because he was hesitant to see his relative in the northern half. I presume that at present there are people in south Korea who are reluctant to meet their relatives in the north and also those who make a secret of their relatives living in the north. This being so, the efforts of the north-south Red Cross organizations alone will not be enough to find the families and relatives scattered over the north and the south properly and help them meet each other freely. So we consider that if this matter is to be settled satisfactorily, political cooperation must be realized between the north and the south.
The question of easing the tension between the north and the south and reducing armaments, too, can only be resolved when political cooperation is achieved.
As a matter of course, the problem of peacefully reunifying Korea without recourse to force of arms between the north and the south is clarified in the North-South Joint Statement. Although the joint statement declared that the north and the south would not resort to arms, both sides are continuing war preparations, for fear of possible war in the future. You continue to import guns with aid from the United States and we continue to manufacture them on our own. As long as this situation continues, tensions in our country cannot be eased. There are many soldiers in our country today, and the military burdens on our people are heavy. A total of 200 000 troops for north and south will be enough to defend the country from foreign invasion. If they cooperate politically, the north and the south can deepen their trust, ease tensions, reduce their military strength to some 100 000 men each and thus lighten the military burdens on the people.
Only when political cooperation is realized can all problems arising in the economic, cultural and military fields be settled. Therefore, we should not confine ourselves to economic and cultural cooperation, but go further to political cooperation.
Political cooperation is not a difficult problem at all. There is no reason why we should not cooperate politically. The existence of different systems in north and south is by no means an insurmountable barrier to political collaboration.
It seems that at present some people in south Korea consider socialism to be something to fear. But there is nothing to be afraid of.
We set off to build socialism after the war. I proposed a task of building socialism in the theses published in April 1955.
The building of socialism was urgently required in view of the situation in our country after the war. The three-year war reduced towns and villages to ashes and utterly destroyed industry and agriculture. During the war, most middle and rich peasants in the countryside had become bankrupt, to say nothing of the poor peasants and handicraftsmen. Traders and manufacturers, too, had been reduced to the same plight that handicraftsmen or small traders were in. In a word, they could scarcely earn a living without pooling their efforts, and they urgently demanded cooperativization. Hence, we advanced the policy of cooperativizing the individual economy in town and country and carried it out strictly according to the principle of free choice. We did not expropriate rich peasants in the countryside and private traders and industrialists in towns, but drew them into socialist cooperatives and made them builders of socialism.
We were short of draught cattle, farm implements and manpower after the war. Even under this difficult situation we effected agricultural cooperativization and pooled the peasants’ efforts, with the result that we were able to carry out irrigation projects on a large scale and develop the rural economy quickly.
I will not go into details of the advantages of the socialist system set up in the northern half of the Republic. When south Koreans witness the situation here in the north in the future, they will know that the socialist system is not something to fear but is a good system. So, there is no reason why the north and the south cannot realize political collaboration and unity.
I consider it reasonable to effect the north-south Federation in carrying out political collaboration between north and south.
The north-south Federation we propose is to set up a unified state leaving the present political systems both in north and south as they are for the time being. Representatives of all political parties and social organizations, delegates of all sections and prominent figures will get together to organize a Supreme
National Council, in which they will jointly discuss and decide on important problems for the development of the nation and carry out activities in the international arena in the name of a single state. This is precisely what the Federation will be. It would be a good idea to call the federal state the Federal Republic of Koryo, after Koryo which is well known to the world. This Federation will make it possible to fully realize contact and collaboration between the north and the south throughout all spheres and increase the international prestige of our nation.
Why should we, a homogeneous nation, enter the international arena as two states? I will not agree to the separate entry of north and south into the UN as long as our country remains divided.
I think we shall reach better agreement if we discuss specific matters concerning the Federation further in future.
You say that you also have no objection to bringing about political, economic and cultural collaboration between the north and the south. This being so, you must strive to put it into practice quickly.
In achieving collaboration between north and south it is important to discard each other’s misunderstandings and mistrust. Smiling outwardly whilst inwardly misunderstanding and distrusting each other will not solve the matter. Both sides should remove each other’s misunderstandings and distrust; this is the only way to achieve the north-south collaboration quickly, I believe.
We will believe you since the south Korean authorities say that they will push US troops out and will not bring in the Japanese. The question is that the south Korean side misunderstands and distrusts us. We are fellow countrymen gathered here; so, if there is anything about which you are doubtful, you should tell us frankly. If you conceal your disagreement and just read out the prepared statement before returning south, it is impossible to remove misunderstanding. In order to dispel misunderstanding we must speak honestly.
If they are to achieve unity and cooperation, the north and the south must refrain from abusing and slandering each other. We are being patient with regard to the slanders of the south Korean authorities against us. If you really want collaboration with us, you must stop your anti-communist propaganda. Since we are desirous of collaborating with the south Korean side, we will not slander you.
When I met the south Korean representative last time, I said it would be better to form and run a kind of north-south joint commission so as to coordinate north-south relations properly and solve problems arising in reunifying the country successfully. We should form a north-south coordination commission on this occasion. I do not think there will be any great problems in doing this. We should form it quickly and operate it properly.
The coordination commission must not indulge in empty talk but coordinate north-south relations properly and steadily solve various problems arising in national reunification one by one. It would be a good idea if, upon the formation of the commission, both sides, in token of mutual trust, were to take measures to cut down their respective armed forces, set political prisoners free and guarantee freedom of activity to political parties.
The door between the north and the south, which has now been opened, must not be closed again. If it is closed again, we shall be blamed by the people of the world as well as by our nation.
Once we have opened the door and begun to tackle the task, we should acquit ourselves well of it and raise the honour of the Korean nation before the whole world.
The sooner the country’s reunification is achieved, the better. If we delay the solution of the reunification question indefinitely, there will be nothing to our advantage. We should, all of us, work together and reunify the country as early as possible.
