Workers World April 20, 2000: Why Koreans celebrate April 15

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------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 20, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------

Why Koreans celebrate April 15

By Deirdre Griswold

The Korean people have a long memory. The earth-shattering events of the last century that led to colonial occupation, war, liberation, the division of the country and yet another imperialist war, are burned into their collective consciousness.
Koreans also have a fondness for dates and anniversaries. Most of all, they treasure the milestones along their difficult road that mark their triumphs and accomplishments.
In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea--the socialist north of the divided land--no date is more important than April 15, the birthday of Kim Il Sung. Kim was the commander of the forces that battled both Japanese colonialism and then U.S. intervention. He also led the ideological struggle to forge a workers' party as the prerequisite to genuine liberation, and was north Korea's president until his death in 1994.
Kim Il Sung was the most outstanding in a whole generation of Korean resistance fighters who became legendary because of their great self-sacrifice and honor amid the most perilous conditions.
Kim Il Sung's name cannot be separated from the socialist aspirations and achievements of the DPRK. During his lifetime, north Korea collectivized the land, rebuilt the cities from the ashes of war, initiated important industrial development, established free and universal education and health care, and guaranteed every person a job and a home.
All this was done on the basis of socialized, not private, property.
This year, as Koreans celebrate Kim Il Sung's birthday in the north--and in the U.S.-occupied south, where such actions must be taken in secret because of the repressive "national security" laws--they will also be telling the world that they are proud of and confident in their new leader, Kim Jong Il, who is following in the socialist footsteps of Kim Il Sung.
The capitalist media in the U.S. have for decades speculated that socialist north Korea would fall apart. They have never gotten over the fact that the world's biggest nuclear power failed to defeat the DPRK in a brutal and counter-revolutionary war lasting three years.
More recently, they can't explain the DPRK's strength even after the destruction of the neighboring Soviet Union, even after the death of Kim Il Sung, even after three years of disastrous weather conditions that destroyed crops and infrastructure. All their predictions of north Korea's imminent demise have failed to materialize.
They have misled people in this country by defaming and reviling the leaders of the DPRK. What most people in the U.S. don't know, because they have never seen it on television or read about it in the newspapers, is that the people in north Korea have enormous loyalty and affection for their leaders. Their unity around the leadership has been a material factor in the DPRK's ability to withstand adversity.
The Korean people consider leadership of the greatest importance, and are amazed that a tremendous country like the United States can be led by such a shabby group of politicians, who have done nothing to distinguish themselves except collect large sums of money to get elected.
There are many twists and turns in the relationship between the U.S. government and the DPRK. But every military threat by the U.S. has been answered by heightened vigilance on the part of the DPRK. Kim Jong Il has paid particular attention to making sure that Korea's military is prepared to defend the country against any aggression.
The Korean leaders have made it clear again and again that they seek an end to the permanent state of war imposed on them--Washington has never agreed to a peace treaty to end the 1950-53 war. They have long sought an easing of tensions so that there could be movement toward the peaceful reunification of the north and south.
At the moment, what may well be an historic meeting between Kim Jong Il and the president of south Korea, Kim Dae Jung, has been announced for June.
June 24 is the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the war. After 50 years of struggle, the DPRK, its leaders and its people continue to show the greatest determination to continue on the path of independence and socialism laid out by Kim Il Sung.

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