Koreans honor Kim Jong Il

The memory of the people in the Democratic People’s Republic Korea is long. They remember how their country was devastated by invading U.S. planes and troops in the 1950-53 war. They remember how the leader of their anti-colonial struggle, the legendary Kim Il Sung, refused to surrender to either the Japanese or the U.S. overlords and built a resistance army, a party and finally a revolutionary, sovereign government based on the popular masses.

Now, all over the DPRK, they are remembering and discussing the significance of the time 44 years ago when Kim Jong Il, the successor to Kim Il Sung, first started work at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the leading political body in the country.

Because the U.S. occupation of South Korea with tens of thousands of troops has persisted since World War II, defense of the north against another attack is uppermost on everyone’s mind. Kim Jong Il is being lauded today for guiding the country through another extremely difficult period—the perilous time after the collapse of the USSR when Washington thought it could take over the whole world—and achieving success in building up North Korea’s defenses. The DPRK now has enough nuclear weapons to deter a U.S. attack—a great scientific-technological achievement for any developing country surrounded by nuclear-armed U.S. ships, planes and bases.

There has been much bluster from the Pentagon and the State Department, but these days U.S. imperialism has so many problems with the wars it has already started that it would be foolhardy to the point of insanity for them to start another one in Korea.