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Kim Jong-il Quotes

Kim Jong-il was the second Supreme Leader of North Korea. He ruled from the death of his father Kim Il-sung, the first Supreme Leader of North Korea, in 1994 until his own death in 2011. He was an unelected dictator and was often accused of human rights violations.

Kim was born in Vyatskoye, Russia, then part of the Soviet Union. By the early 1980s, Kim had become the heir apparent for the leadership of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and assumed important posts in the party and army organs. Kim succeeded his father and DPRK founder, Kim Il-sung, following the elder Kim's death in 1994. Kim was the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea , WPK Presidium, Chairman of the National Defence Commission of North Korea and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army , the fourth-largest standing army in the world.

During Kim's rule, the country suffered famine and had a poor human rights record. Kim involved his country in state terrorism and strengthened the role of the military by his Songun politics. Kim's rule also saw tentative economic reforms, including the opening of the Kaesong Industrial Park in 2003. In April 2009, North Korea's constitution was amended to refer to him and his successors as the "supreme leader of the DPRK".The most common colloquial title given to Kim was "Dear Leader" to distinguish him from his father Kim Il-sung, the "Great Leader". Following Kim's failure to appear at important public events in 2008, foreign observers assumed that Kim had either fallen seriously ill or died. On 19 December 2011, the North Korean government announced that he had died two days earlier, whereupon his third son, Kim Jong-un, was promoted to a senior position in the ruling WPK and succeeded him. After his death, Kim was designated the "Eternal General Secretary" of the WPK and the "Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission", in keeping with the tradition of establishing eternal posts for the dead members of the Kim dynasty.

✵ 16. February 1941 – 17. December 2011
Kim Jong-il photo

Works
On the Juche Idea
Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il: 18   quotes 2   likes

Famous Kim Jong-il Quotes

“I am the object of criticism around the world. But I think that since I am being discussed, then I am on the right track.”

Kim Jong-il

Conversation with Konstantin Pulikovsky (Summer 2001), quoted in his book Orient Express
Behnke, Alison. Kim Jong Il's North Korea http://books.google.ba/books?id=cdQ8QZU6H0MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=kim+jong+il&source=bl&ots=qNQT5KQLoZ&sig=OguwgfrkTQ-eOqbqUCBWSnQAe-k&hl=hr&sa=X&ei=7VJWUPC3OK_74QSxmoGQBg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=kim%20jong%20il&f=false
Variant: I know I'm an object of criticism in the world, but if I am being talked about, I must be doing the right things.

“Man is a product of evolution, but not his independence. Independence is a social product.”

Kim Jong-il

"On some questions in understanding the Juche philosophy" http://www.korea-dpr.com/lib/Kim%20Jong%20Il%20-%203/ON%20SOME%20QUESTIONS%20IN%20UNDERSTANDING%20THE%20JUCHE%20PHILOSOPHY.pdf, speech delivered to theoretical propagandists of the Party, April 2, 1974
Context: Independence is an attribute of man, the social being; it should not be viewed as the development to perfection of a natural, biological attribute of living matter. This is, in essence, an evolutionary viewpoint. Of course, we do not deny evolutionism itself. Science has long established the fact that man is a product of ages of evolution. Man is a product of evolution, but not his independence. Independence is a social product. Independence is an attribute given to man by society, not nature; it is not a natural gift, but has been formed and developed socially and historically.

“All exploiting classes, after all, constitute a reaction against history; they are the target of revolution.”

Kim Jong-il book On the Juche Idea

On the Juche Idea, treatise submitted to the National Seminar on the Juche Idea held to mark the 70th birthday of the Great Leader Comrade Kim II Sung (31 March 1982)

“Nothing is impossible for a man with a strong will. The possible is in store only for a man who loves the future. There is no word "impossible" in the Korean language.”

Kim Jong-il

"Unification of the fatherland is an act of supreme patriotism" (1970s), quoted in Kim Jong Il Handbook (2011) by International Business Publications USA

“Our Party’s Songun-based revolutionary leadership, Songun-based politics, is a revolutionary mode of leadership and socialist mode of politics that gives top priority to military affairs, and defends the country, the revolution and socialism and dynamically pushes ahead with overall socialist construction by dint of the revolutionary mettle and combat capabilities of the People’s Army.”

Kim Jong-il

"The Songun-based revolutionary line is a great revolutionary line of our era and an ever-victorious banner of our revolution", address to the senior officials of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party (29 January 2003)

“Karl Marx made a great contribution to the liberation cause of mankind, and because of his immortal exploits his name is still enshrined in the hearts of the working class and peoples of all countries.”

Kim Jong-il

Rodong Sinmun (25 December 1995) "Respecting the forerunners of the revolution is a noble moral obligation of revolutionaries" http://www.korea-dpr.com/library/206.pdf

Kim Jong-il Quotes about people

“The "human rights" advertised by the imperialists are privileges of the rich, privileges to do anything on the strength of money. The imperialists do not recognize the right of unemployed people to work, or the right of orphans or people without support to eat and survive, for instance, as human rights. As they do not grant working people elementary rights to existence and as they pursue anti-popular policies and policies of racial and national discrimination and colonialism, the imperialists have no right to speak about human rights. The imperialists are the most heinous enemy of human rights.”

Kim Jong-il

"Socialism is a Science" http://www.korea-dpr.com/lib/106.pdf, article in Rodong Sinmun (1 November 1994)

“Glory to the heroic soldiers of the Korean People's Army!”

Kim Jong-il

Military review on the 60th anniversary of the KPA (25 April 1992), the only occasion of Kim's voice being broadcast in the DPRK http://observer.guardian.co.uk/7days/story/0,,1816145,00.html

“Although the Great Leader told us that we have to let the people eat rice with meat soup, wear silk clothes and live in a tiled roof house, we have not accomplished his will.… We have already reached the status of a strong country in the military field, let alone politics and ideology, but there are still quite a number of things lacking in people's lives. I am trying to implement his will by solving these problems.”

Kim Jong-il

Rodung Sinmun (9 January 2010) http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01700&num=5889

“It is my greatest wish to enable our people to live with nothing to envy at the earliest possible date, and it is my greatest pleasure to work energetically, sharing my joys and sorrows with our people, on the road of translating my wish into reality.”

Kim Jong-il

Source: Response to questions from Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency (13 October 2011) http://naenara.com.kp/en/news/news_view.php?22+1477

“To make the whole Korean peninsula nuclear-free was the behest of the great President Kim Il-sung, and it is the consistent stand of the government of our Republic. The nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula arose as a result of the United States constantly threatening the sovereignty and security of our people. Sovereignty is the lifeline of a country and nation. We have possessed nuclear deterrent to protect our sovereignty from the blatant nuclear threat of the United States and its increasingly hostile policy.”

Kim Jong-il

Response to questions from Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency (13 October 2011) http://naenara.com.kp/en/news/news_view.php?22+1477

“Our country is suffering from the lack of food. We don't have rice for the military. Our country is in a state of anarchy because of the dysfunctional food rationing system. The administration department is responsible for this mess, as well as the Party officials. The Party's Central Committee members have failed their duty in generating a revolutionary spirit, diminishing the Party's effectiveness. We must solve the food problem according to socialist principles, and we must not rely on individuals. If we let the people solve the problem on their own, only merchants and markets will prosper. Then, selfishness will rule our society and destroy our system of true equality.”

Kim Jong-il

Reported speech at Kim Il Sung University in December 1996, as quoted in Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il (2012) by John H. Cha and K. J. Sohn. Domestic collections of Kim's works do not confirm the speech or the wording, but an April 1996 speech to the Central Committee began with similar observations, and a "state of anarchy" arising from privatization in former socialist countries was a theme in earlier works.
1990s

Kim Jong-il Quotes

“It's all a lie. They're just pretending to praise me.”

Kim Jong-il

Remark to kidnapped South Korean director Shin Sang-ok (7 March 1983); quoted in Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader

Lie

“In their day, Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin represented the aspirations and demands of the exploited working masses, and the cause of socialism was inseparably linked with their names.”

Kim Jong-il

"Let us advance under the banner of Marxism-Leninism and the Juche Idea" http://www.korea-dpr.com/lib/Kim%20Jong%20Il%20-%204/LET%20US%20ADVANCE%20UNDER%20THE%20BANNER%20OF%20MARXISM.pdf (3 May 1983)

“The physical life of an individual person is limited, but the life of the masses united as an independent social-political organism is immortal.… Only when an individual becomes a member of this community can he acquire the immortal social-political life.”

Kim Jong-il

Source: "Theory of the Immortal Social-Political Body" (1986)

Life , Communication , Personality

“I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired.”

Kim Jong-il

North Korea Dear Leader Kim Jong Il: "I'm an Internet expert too", Ars Technica, 2007-10-05, 2008-01-01 http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071005-north-korea-dear-leader-kim-jong-il-im-an-internet-expert-too.html,

Problem

“The core in the Juche outlook on the revolution is loyalty to the party and the leader. The cause of socialism and communism is started by the leader and is carried out under the guidance of the party and the leader.”

Kim Jong-il book On the Juche Idea

On the Juche Idea, treatise submitted to the National Seminar on the Juche Idea (31 March 1982)

Communication , Loyalty

“Calling socialism, under which the popular masses are the masters of everything, "totalitarianism" is, ultimately, a preposterous lie which identifies the most progressive idea that reflects the demands of the popular masses with the reactionary idea of fascist rulers.”

Kim Jong-il

Source: "Abuses of socialism are intolerable," article in Central Committee magazine Kulloja (March 1, 1993)

Idea , Lie

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