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Kim Il-sung Quotes

Kim Il-sung was the first leader of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994. He was also the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea from 1949 to 1994 . Coming to power after the end of Japanese rule in 1945, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, triggering an intervention in defense of South Korea by the United Nations led by the United States. Following the military stalemate in the Korean War, a ceasefire was signed on 27 July 1953. He was the third longest-serving non-royal head of state/government in the 20th century, in office for more than 45 years.

Under his leadership, North Korea was established as a communist state with a publicly owned and planned economy. It had close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union. By the 1960s, North Korea briefly enjoyed a standard of living higher than the South, which was fraught with political instability and economic crises. The situation reversed in the 1970s, as a newly stable South Korea became an economic powerhouse fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid, and internal economic development, while North Korea stagnated and then declined in the 1980s. Differences emerged between North Korea and the Soviet Union, chief among them being Kim Il-sung's philosophy of Juche, which focused on Korean nationalism, self-reliance, and socialism. Despite this, the country received funds, subsidies and aid from the USSR until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The resulting loss of economic aid adversely affected the North's economy, causing widespread famine in 1994. During this period, North Korea also remained critical of the United States defense force's presence in the region, which it considered imperialism, having seized the American ship USS Pueblo in 1968, which was part of an infiltration and subversion campaign to reunify the peninsula under North Korea's rule. He outlived Joseph Stalin by four decades and Mao Zedong by almost two and remained in power during the terms of office of six South Korean Presidents, ten US Presidents, and the rule of British monarchs George VI and later his daughter Elizabeth II. Known as the Great Leader , he established a personality cult which dominates domestic politics in North Korea.

At the 6th WPK Congress in 1980, his oldest son Kim Jong-il was elected as a Presidium member and chosen as his heir apparent to the supreme leadership. Kim Il-sung's birthday is a public holiday in North Korea called the "Day of the Sun". In 1998, Kim Il-sung was declared "eternal President of the Republic". During his rule, North Korea was molded into a totalitarian state responsible for widespread human rights abuses. Wikipedia  

✵ 15. April 1912 – 8. July 1994
Kim Il-sung photo
Kim Il-sung: 20   quotes 4   likes

Famous Kim Il-sung Quotes

“My God is none other than the people. Only the popular masses are omniscient and omnipotent and almighty on earth. Therefore my lifetime motto is: "The people are my God."”

Kim Il-sung

Comment to Cheondoist independence activist Kim In Jin (1936), described in autobiography With the Century (1993)

“In a nutshell, the idea of Juche means that the masters of the revolution and the work of construction are the masses of the people and that they are also the motive force of the revolution and the work of construction. In other words, one is responsible for one's own destiny and one has also the capacity for hewing out one's own destiny.”

Kim Il-sung

Mainichi Shimbun (17 September 1972) "On Some Problems of Our Party's Juche Idea and the Government of the Republic's Internal and External Policies"

“We've always been under sanctions. Even under all those sanctions we have made the growth thus far, so I am not afraid.… If you wish to lift the sanctions then lift them, or if you wish to impose sanctions then impose them. I do not care. We will improve our economy further no matter what.”

Kim Il-sung

Source: Remarks to Jimmy Carter (June 1994), as recalled during his final policy meeting and shown in the KCTV documentary The Year 1994

“The basis of the Juche Idea is that man is the master of all things and the decisive factor in everything.”

Kim Il-sung

On Juche in Our Revolution vol. 2 (1977)

“While there are still imperialist aggressors, the state that has no defense power of its own to protect its sovereignty against the internal and external enemies is, in fact, not a fully independent and sovereign state.”

Kim Il-sung

Mainichi Shimbun (17 September 1972)

“Engels once called the British army the most brutal army. During the Second World War, the German fascist army surpassed the barbarism of the British army. No human brain could ever imagine more diabolic and terrible cruelty then those done by the Hitler gangsters at that time. But in Korea, the Americans have far exceed the Hitlerites!”

Kim Il-sung

Kim Il-sung to the Swedish communist leader Frank Baude in 1993. Quote and translated fr Mot strömmen, pg. 186: "Engels kallade en gång den brittiska armén den mest brutala armén. Under andra världskriget överträffade den tyska fascistarmén brittiska armén i barbari. Ingen mänsklig hjärna kunde någonsin föreställa sig mer djävulska och förfärliga grymheter än dem som begicks av Hitler-skurkarna vid den tiden. Men i Korea har amerikanerna långt mer överträffat hitleristerna."

Kim Il-sung Quotes about people

“The time has come when we Korean people have to unite our strength to build a new, democratic Korea. People from all strata should display patriotic enthusiasm and turn out to build a new Korea. To contribute posi­tively to the work of building the state, let those with strength give strength, let those with knowledge give knowledge, let those with money give money, and let all people who truly love their country, their nation and democ­racy unite closely and build an independent and sovereign democratic state.”

Kim Il-sung

Victory speech in Pyongyang (14 October 1945)

“The people are the masters of the revolution in each country. It is like putting a cart before the horse that foreigners carry out the revolution for them. The revolution can neither be exported nor imported.”

Kim Il-sung

Quoted in Kim Il Sung, Master of Leadership (1976) by Takagi Takeo

“When confederation is realized, and the ideologies of North and South are propagandized in the course of free intercourse between the two sides, the Republic [DPRK] will not be affected in the slightest, because it is a unified state. But the South is an ideologically divided, liberal country, so if we extensively propagate Juche Thought and the superiority of our system we can win over at least half its citizens. As of now South Korea is twice our size in population terms. But once we win over half the South's people in a confederation, we will be two parts to the South's one. We would then win either a general election or a war.”

Kim Il-sung

To Todor Zhivkov (30 October 1973), as quoted in 어둠이 된 햇볕은 어둠을 밝힐 수 없다 https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114533 (2001), p. 222

“Thanks to our trust in people, we won everything.”

Kim Il-sung

With the century, vol. 4

“Revolutionaries, believe in the people and rely on them at all times and you shall always emerge victorious; if you are forsaken by them, you will always fail. Let this be your maxim in your life and struggle.”

Kim Il-sung

With the century, vol. 1

Kim Il-sung Quotes

“What is Juche [the subject] in our Party's ideological work? What are we doing? We are not engaged in any other country's revolution, but precisely in the Korean revolution. This, the Korean revolution, constitutes Juche in the ideological work of our Party. Therefore, all ideological work must be subordinated to the interests of the Korean revolution.”

Kim Il-sung

Source: " On eliminating dogmatism and formalism and establishing Juche in ideological work http://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/1955/12/28.htm" (28 December 1955)

Country

“The revolution itself originates from a dream of the future or from the craving for a new life.”

Kim Il-sung

With the century, vol. 8

Future , Life , Dreams

“Socialism is a human ideal, an inevitable course of historical development, and therefore it is perfectly clear that socialism will rise again in the end.”

Kim Il-sung

With the century, vol. 7

“We emerged victorious in every battle with the enemy at all times and in all places, because we were full of confidence in victory, and maintained an indefatigable fighting and self-sacrificing spirit without losing our composure and hope, even in confrontation with an enemy force, which was dozens of times stronger in number.”

Kim Il-sung

With the century, vol. 5

Confidence , Time , Victory , Hope

“Man is the greatest being endowed with independence, creativity and consciousness and, at the same time, a beautiful creature who champions justice. Man, by nature, aspires to virtue and ennobling qualities and detests all that is evil and dirty. These unique features constitute his human traits.”

Kim Il-sung

With the century, vol. 4

Time , Justice , Beauty , Nature

“A free and peaceful new world without exploitation and oppression was the age-long dream and ideal of humanity”

Kim Il-sung

With the century, vol. 3

World , Peace , Dreams , Age

“If a man who professes to be a communist punishes an innocent person by labelling him a reactionary, he's no longer a communist, but the worst of criminals.”

Kim Il-sung

With the century, vol. 3

Personality

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