The Correct Way to Political Independence

The Juche idea clarifies the most correct way to keep the principle of independence in politics.

What, then, is the correct way?

Firstly, it is to set people’s power, secondly, to build internal political forces, thirdly, to map out policies independently according to one’s decision with one’s own guiding ideology and exercise complete sovereignty and equality in external relations.

The correct way to political independence is to establish people’s power.

General Secretary Kim Jong Il said:

In order to ensure political independence, it is imperative to set up a people’s government.

To set up people’s power is the prerequisite for independence in politics. That is because independent right finds its concentric expression in state power and the former is represented by the latter.

This means the will and demand of the people are integrated by one’s political organization and the state, and are reflected in its policy. This being the case, if the people are to realize their independence, they should have genuine people’s power and become its masters. Only then, can they realize political independence as masters and lead independent and creative life in all fields of social life.

In the past, Korean people were deprived of the country by the Japanese imperialists, and without government they had to lead a bitter life. But President Kim Il Sung restored the country and set up people’s government and thus made the people dignified masters of the state and society who shape their destiny in an independent and creative way.

Korean reality tells that when the people have power and become genuine masters of the state and society, they can lead an independent and creative life.

Secondly, the correct way to political independence is to build internal political forces.

General Secretary Kim Jong Il said:

In order to guarantee political independence it is necessary to build internal political forces.

To build internal political forces is one of the important ways to ensure independence in politics.

That is because political forces are decisive guarantee for independent politics.

Politics should be guaranteed by power. Without power, one cannot do as one wishes.

A country should have internal forces to conduct independent politics. Only then, can the people map out their policy independently according to their decision and go their way without being influenced by any oppression and interference.

Under the condition that the imperialists break wars overtly in Iraq and Balkan, violating sovereignty of the people, it is impossible to expect political independence without building its own revolutionary forces.

The revolutionary forces that guarantee political independence and victory of the revolution consist of political forces, economic forces and military forces.

Political forces mean the united forces of the people who are rallied ideologically around the party and the leader. The economic forces mean material forces to provide material means necessary for the revolution and construction, and military forces mean the forces to defeat armed invasion of the imperialists by oneself and carry out the revolution and construction by oneself.

Among these forces, the political forces are the main. That is because the political forces propel the revolution and decide economic and military forces. Only by the political forces of the people who are firmly rallied around the party and the leader, is it possible to build and use powerful economic and military forces.

What does the fall of socialism tell?

It tells if the people are not prepared and united politically and ideologically, they cannot defeat counterrevolutionary offensives of the imperialists and reactionaries and have to go through trials in the revolution and construction, however big military and economic forces they have.

In the DPRK, the entire people are rallied around the party and the leader to form a political force in a single-hearted way. Therefore, it maintains political independence in any difficult situations and is ever-victorious in the revolution and construction.

The single-hearted unity of the leader, the party, and the people is the mainstay of the revolution and the most powerful weapon that has no match.

The correct way to political independence is also to decide and implement one’s policy independently with one’s own guiding ideology.

What is important in politics is to define and implement policies. Without correct guiding ideology, it is impossible to map out policies in the interests of the people and this is not independent politics.

If accepting pressure or interference by others or dancing to the tune of others, it is impossible to keep principle and consistency. If so, it is impossible to make revolution and construction well.

So is the case of many countries that became socialist countries after the World War 2.

The parties in these countries followed flunkeyism and imitated others instead of following independence, absolutizing the policies of a big country that made revolution first and regarding it as the principle to accept its policies.

In these countries they built parties and states after the form of the big country and if the big country held party congress, they followed it, imitating it whether it suits to their situation or not. It is rumored that if it rained in Moscow, the people in Berlin and Budapest held up umbrellas.

But in the DPRK, under the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung, they decided independently the policies of building party, state and army, the policies of democratic reform, and policy of intellectuals. They also defined in their tastes the policy of socialist revolution to transform the forms of economy before the technical renovation, the main line of building socialist economy to develop light industry and agriculture simultaneously while giving priority to heavy industry, and the general line of building socialism through three revolutions–ideological, technical and cultural.

When the socialist countries that danced to the tune of the others collapsed with the fall of the big country, the Korean socialism is ever-victorious without agitating in vicissitudes and big political upheavals that swept over the world.

This historical fact tells it is possible to keep political independence of a country, only when one has scientific guiding ideology that reflects demand and on that basis, sets up and implements correct policy independently in order to make the revolution and construction well.

The other correct way to political independence is to exercise complete sovereignty and equality in external relations.

This is the sacred rights of the country and nation.

There can be big or small countries but no privileged countries or not. All countries are independent and equal. No country can interfere in other’s affairs and no country should tolerate it.

It is historical lessons that blind imitation and dependency in external relations lead to failure in solving all problems arising in the revolution and construction independently in the interests of the people.

These countries followed the Soviet Union so they failed to keep independence in external relations. As a result, they failed to build prosperous socialism but followed the Soviet Union when it did revisionism and “reform”, eventually collapsing with the fall of the Soviet Union.

All the countries should remember this serious lessons and not only tolerate their sovereignty to be infringed upon but also treat other countries equally and respect them.

Only then, can each country substantially exercise its independent right in external relations and ensure political independence.

It is necessary to know the relations between political sovereignty, independence in politics and internationalism.

That is because some countries slander other countries that maintain political independence in the world political arena branding them as “isolationism” or “nationalism”.

The Juche idea claims that political independence is not confronted with internationalism but the former is the basis to strengthen the latter.

Apart from political independence, there can be no genuine international unity and friendship. How is it possible to make friendly relations with the countries that interfere in others’ affairs without respecting their sovereignty?

As a matter of fact, internationalist unity ought to be voluntary and equal. For this end, each country should keep its independence.

To defend independence–this is the correct way in which the revolutionary countries can contribute to the world revolution.