DPRK Commemorates “Day of the Shining Star”

PYONGYANG – February 16 marks the anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong Il, father to the Democratic Republic of Korea’s current leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Il was born on February 16, 1942 to President Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk at the Paektusan Secret Camp. His birth date is now referred to as the Day of the Shining Star.

The commemorations take place as the DPRK and South Korea are holding high-level talks at the border village of Panmunjeom.

Kim Jong Il was born as the son of the people and grew up among them, established the noblest outlook on them and thoroughly embodied it in his ideological and theoretical activities and revolutionary leadership.

The revolutionary life of Kim Jong Il for nearly seven decades was a life of the legendary great man who weathered the most stern trials in modern history and brought about epoch-making victories and miracles, Rodong Sinmun said in a 2013 editorial, and went on to write: “He (Kim Jong Il) found himself among the people in good or difficult days and devoted all his energies, enthusiasm and sincerity to them”.

He provided important guidelines to be held fast to by the Workers’ Party of Korea, the army and the people, ranging from the philosophical principle of the Juche idea to the Songun revolutionary line and the theory of building a thriving nation and from the building of the party, army and people’s power to ideas and theories of making the whole world independent. His ideological and theoretical exploits were beyond human imagination.

It was thanks to his energetic leadership that the political and ideological unity of the whole society developed into the most solid and powerful single-minded unity and the Korean People’s Army grew up to be a-match-for-a hundred revolutionary army and an army strong in ideology and faith possessed of the latest means for attack and defence.

The foundation of the self-supporting economy has grown remarkably stronger and there is a firm guarantee for building an economic power and highly civilised power thanks to the advance for great surge led by Kim Jong Il and the flames of the industrial revolution in the new century kindled by him.

He fully demonstrated the dignity of Songun Korea and firmly defended the global peace and stability with his superb diplomatic strategy and through his energetic external activities. This was the great feat performed by him for the human cause of independence.

The greatest exploit performed by him for the country and its people was that he successfully settled the issue of succession to the leadership.

Minju Joson in its 2013 editorial also noted that his revolutionary life was the noble one of the gifted thinker and theoretician and peerless statesman who fully demonstrated the DPRK as a dignified political and ideological power.

On February 8, 2013, Garib Newaz, president of the Bangladesh People’s League, lauded Kim Jong Il as an outstanding statesman who steered to victory the Korean revolution with his brilliant ideological and theoretical activities and extraordinary leadership. “I am sure that the Workers’ Party of Korea, army and people will certainly carry forward and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Songun and the cause of building a thriving country under the leadership of His Excellency Kim Jong Un”, he said.
Kim Jong Il passed away after a sudden illness on December 17, 2011.

Short biography of Kim Jong Il

• •    Received general education from September 1950 to August 1960.
• •    Attended Kim Il Sung University from 1960 to 1964.
• •    Admitted to the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) on July 22, 1961.
• •    Appointed an officer of the WPK Central Committee in June 1964 and successively held the posts of section chief, deputy department director and department director of the WPK CC until September 1973.
• •    Elected member of the WPK CC at the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Fifth WPK CC in October 1972, and secretary of the WPK CC at the Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Fifth WPK CC in September 1973.
• •    Elected to the Political Committee of the WPK CC and acclaimed heir to President Kim Il Sung at the Eighth Plenary Meeting of the Fifth WPK CC in February 1974.
• •    Elected member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK CC, secretary of the WPK CC and member of the WPK Central Military Commission at the Sixth Congress of the WPK in October 1980.
• •    Elected to the 7th to 12th Supreme People’s Assemblies (SPA) of the DPRK between February 1982 and April 2009.
• •    Elected First Vice-chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission at the First Session of the Ninth SPA in May 1990.
• •    Appointed Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army in December 1991.
• •    Awarded the title of the DPRK Marshal in April 1992.
• •    Elected Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission at the Fifth Session of the Ninth SPA in April 1993.
• •    Elected General Secretary of the WPK in October 1997 and re-elected General Secretary of the WPK at the Third Conference of the WPK in September 2010.
• •    Re-elected Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission at the First Session of the 10th SPA in September 1998, at the First Session of the 11th SPA in September 2003 and at the First Session of the 12th SPA in April 2009.
• •    Published a great number of works, including those compiled in the 15-volume “Kim Jong Il’s Selected Works” and the 10-volume “Accomplishment of Juche Revolutionary Cause”, through energetic and brilliant ideological and theoretical activities.
• •    The army and people of the DPRK held Kim Jong Il in high esteem as the eternal General Secretary of the WPK and the eternal Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission at the Fourth Conference of the WPK in April 2012 and at the Fifth Session of the 12th SPA in April 2012, respectively.
• •    Awarded  the  title  of  the  DPRK  Hero  four  times  in 1975, 1982, 1992 and 2011, respectively, Kim Il Sung Order four times in 1978, 1982, 1992 and 2012, Kim Il Sung Prize in February 1973 and March 2012, and many other decorations and medals.
• •    Awarded the title of the DPRK Generalissimo in February 2012.  – KCNA/Agencies).