World Politics

North Korean Article Reiterates “Military-First Politics” Role in Reunification

Text of report in English by North Korean newspaper Nodong Sinmun via Uriminjokkkiri website on 2 May
[Special article by Han Ch’o’l-chun: “Military-First Politics of Loving the Country, the Nation, and the People Is a Sure Guarantee for the Nation’s Independence Reunification”]
The great leader [ryo’ngdoja] Comrade Kim Jong Il [Kim Cho’ng-il] [preceding name in bold as published] has pointed out the following.

“Our military-first politics, which is based on invincible revolutionary armed force, is principled and just anti-imperialist independent politics that reliably defends and guarantees the independent demand and interests of the popular masses and the sovereignty and dignity of the country and nation from imperialist reactionaries’ various infringements, and is the sacred politics of loving the country, the nation, and the people.” [preceding quote in bold as published]
Our party’s military-first politics is the sacred politics of loving the country, the nation, and the people, which defends the nation’s sovereignty and dignity with the gun-barrel of justice and enables [us] to independently realize the country’s reunification cause.

The military-first politics is the politics of national independence that safeguards the nation’s dignity and sovereignty.
Our country’s reunification is the cause of national independence for putting an end to the US imperialists’ rule and intervention in South Korea and connecting the nation’s lineage, and not for the sake of resolving class conflict within the nation or institutional confrontation. Resolving all issues arising from the fatherland’s reunification movement with the force of national juche consistent with our nation’s intentions and interests is a fundamental issue related to the success or failure of the reunification cause.

Our party’s military-first politics guarantees the exercise of the nation’s independent rights in the implementation of the reunification cause with military strength. The military-first politics is, by its own nature, politics for defending and realizing sovereignty, which is the life of the country and nation. The military-first politics rejects outside forces’ meddling and intervention in our reunification cause and enables our nation to resolve the reunification issue consistent with their intentions and interests. It is because of the military-first politics that our republic can decisively crush the US imperialists’ high-handed threats and blackmail and war provocation manoeuvres and vigorously step up the nation’s cause of independent reunification, today. The military-first [politics] is the nation’s independence, and reunification can be realized only under the protection of military-first [politics]. The issue of the fatherland’s reunification, on which rests the nation’s life-or-death fate, can only be resolved by the juche-oriented struggle [juchejo’kin t’ujaeng] and efforts of our Korean nation, which has the most immediate interest relations and which possesses the infinite power to actually realize this.

The military-first politics heightens the national independent consciousness and pride of the whole nation from the North, the South, and overseas, and vigorously pushes them to the single path of reunification and patriotism. One of the grounds for our party’s military-first politics becoming the politics of loving the country, the nation, and the people lies in providing a guarantee for resolving the fatherland’s reunification issue, aimed at securing national sovereignty at the national level, with the nation’s own strength from the principle of national independence.

The military-first politics is the politics of defending peace, which prevents the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula and reliably defends our nation’s safety.
The fatherland’s reunification is premised on peace. Reunification cannot be discussed amid the flames of war. To our nation, which is impatiently waiting for the fatherland’s reunification, defending peace becomes a task more urgent than ever.
Our party’s military-first politics is a precious sword of peace that prepares an environment favourable for the fatherland’s reunification, while checking the US imperialists’ new war provocation manoeuvres that are becoming more blatant with daily self-defensive deterrence. Our republic is an impregnable fortress, and peace on the Korean Peninsula is being defended, because our People’s Army has displayed its majestic appearance as an invincible powerful army possessing both offensive and defensive capability and the entire society has formed in perfect harmony with the revolutionary soldier spirit.

Our invincible revolutionary armed force under the military-first leadership of the great general, who is a Mt. Paektu heaven-sent brilliant commander, is defending not only our republic but also South Korea from the imperialists’ invasion. The military-first politics has become a merciless iron hammer to the aggressors and an iron shield to the nation for preventing the danger of war and defending their well-being. It is because of the invincible war deterrence prepared with the might of military-first [politics] that the imperialist combined forces, including the US imperialists, dare not kindle the fire of war opposing our republic. It is completely natural for South Korean people to assert that in following the road of military-first politics lies the way for them to live, while lauding the military-first politics as the politics of loving the country, the nation, and the people, which defend the nation’s safety and the country’s peace.
The military-first politics is the politics of great national unity, which firmly unites the entire nation under the banner of loving the country and nation and the banner of the fatherland’s reunification.

The power of realizing the fatherland’s reunification is our nation’s juche strength, and the main force of the fatherland’s reunification is the entire Korean nation of the North, the South, and overseas. The cause of the fatherland’s reunification, which is the cause of the entire nation, can be realized only when the power of national juche [minjok jucheu’ihim] is strengthened in every manner, and great national unity is sought.
It is our party’s firm position and consistent policy to win over and unite all the people who love the country and nation without regard to the differences in ideas, systems, classes, and social strata, for the fatherland’s reunification, which is the nation’s cherished desire. The military-first politics touches the hearts of national members, who consider the nation’s dignity and sovereignty as precious as their lives, and strongly unite them in the ranks of struggle for the fatherland’s reunification. The military-first politics does not show mercy to the nation’s enemies, but protects and embraces national members to its bosom. Today, anyone who has the blood and soul of the Korean nation and desires the fatherland’s reunification is actively supporting and defending our party’s military-first politics, regardless of where they are. This begins from their faith and will that the fatherland’s reunification and the prosperity of the nation’s future generations to come can be realized only when one supports and defends the military-first politics and engages in the struggle with its banner held high.

It has become an unstoppable trend of the times for the Korean compatriots of the North, the South, and overseas to jump in the current of great national unity for the fatherland’s reunification according to the military-first banner. This is clear proof that our party’s military-first politics is becoming a great banner for realizing the cause of great national unity, which consolidates the juche strength of the fatherland’s reunification in every manner.
Our party’s military-first politics has been receiving the active support and approval of the whole nation, not to mention the world’s peace-loving people, because it is the politics of loving the country, the nation, and the people, which defends the nation’s dignity and sovereignty and the country’s peace, and paves the way ahead of the fatherland’s reunification and national prosperity.

The road ahead of the nation’s independent reunification is bright because of the military-first politics of loving the country, the nation, and the people, which defends the nation’s dignity and sovereignty, the country’s peace, and the safety of the nation.
The entire nation of the North, the South, and overseas must reject outside forces with strong faith according to the military-first banner and firmly unite as one under the ideology of “By Our Nation.” By doing so, they must resolutely rally forth to the struggle of loving the country and nation for reuniting the divided fatherland as quickly as possible and realizing the nation’s common prosperity.