Talk to Senior Officials of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea

    January 14, 1996

    A revolutionary must live not merely for today but for tomorrow. For a revolutionary living and fighting for tomorrow is more important than for today.

    In my work, I recognize with equanimity any difficulty attendant on my duty, since in my mind I see the prospect of our ever-prospering socialist country and the faces of our people who will enjoy a more worthwhile and fulfilling life in its embrace. “Live not merely for today but for tomorrow!”– this is my outlook on life. It means that one should live with the determination to dedicate oneself to the future of one’s country and the happiness of posterity, even though one may not enjoy any benefits from one’s service. The anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters fought with such an outlook on life, with such a conviction.

    Our officials should fight heart and soul for the final victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche, cherishing the outlook on life, the conviction, that one must live not merely for today but for tomorrow.

    The revolution is not completed in one generation; it is a long-term undertaking lasting several generations. Kim Hyong Jik9, the father of President Kim Il Sung , put forward the idea “Aim High”10 in his early days and composed a song Green Pine on Nam Hill which is run through with the meaningful message that the revolution should be carried out generation after generation. The President inherited his father’s idea of “Aim High” and developed it further, thus opening up a new path of the Korean revolution. “Aim High” ran through the President’s ideology and down into mine. No matter how thorny the road of revolution may be, we should accomplish through the generations the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered by our leader President Kim Il Sung , overcoming all the hardships and trials.

    We should not make the revolution for the sake of our own pleasure. Those who seek immediate pleasure for today cannot make the revolution and may reduce themselves to lagging behind the times. If we want to enjoy pleasure, we should do so only after our people are living happily with nothing to envy in the world and the country is reunified. The President did his utmost to ensure that the people could eat rice and meat soup, dressed in silk and living in tile-roofed houses, and to reunify the country, the supreme desire of the nation. He often went without sleep or rest and eventually worked himself to death. We must, as soon as possible, translate into reality his intention to ensure that our people are living well enough for them to envy nothing in the world, by accelerating the socialist construction by all means, and accomplish without fail the historic cause of national reunification, which was his lifelong desire. To this end, we must strive hard, instead of pursuing personal pleasure. To seek personal comfort now, when our people are not well off and the entire nation is suffering the pain of national division, is behaviour that demonstrates a lack of conscience proper to the times. I do not allow myself any personal comfort. The President instructed that revolutionaries should be content to eat rice with just soybean paste, if they can make a revolution. Our officials should bend every effort to fulfilling their revolutionary tasks, with such a conviction and resolution.

    The enemy is desperate to conquer our country, the bulwark of socialism.

    We have manifold difficulties and trials to overcome, as we have to defend socialism single-handed in the face of the imperialists’ encirclement. But we can never backtrack from the course of revolution. A true revolutionary, a communist, must die an honourable and worthy death while making a revolution. To die an honourable death while fighting to the last on the glorious road for the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche is the most worthwhile life for Juche-type communist revolutionaries. No one in the world is our equal if we fight with such a conviction and the courage to defend socialism whatever the trials and hardships, even if it may cost us our lives; then we will see who will have the last laugh. “No one in the world can match a man ready to risk his life”– this is precisely an expression of the conviction and courage required of our revolutionaries. If the Supreme Commander issues an order, everyone should turn out, ready to lay down his or her life in carrying it out. Our officials should be indomitable revolutionary soldiers who thrust themselves forward into the front line at the risk of their lives.

    All officials should advance bravely, looking far into the future, with full confidence in the victory of the revolution. When we build a factory or undertake a land realignment project, we should draw up an ambitious plan and carry it out boldly, looking 10 years, 50 years or 100 years into the future. Only an official who marches forward bravely, however challenging and however manifold the difficulties facing him or her, looking into the future, can be called an official with full conviction and the Juche-oriented outlook on life.

    In order to follow the road of revolution unswervingly, cherishing the Juche-oriented outlook on life, one should intensify one’s Party organizational activities, training oneself in a revolutionary way. No turncoat or waverer appears among those who faithfully conduct their Party organizational activities. Experience shows that turncoats and waverers appear among those who are idle in Party organizational activities and who like to distance themselves from Party organizations. Those who pay only lip service to Party organizations and those who shed crocodile tears, should not be judged at face value as loyalists and such.

    We should live and work cheerfully in order to create a wonderful future, braving even a mountain of trials. Someone with a firm conviction loves the future, and someone who loves the future does not know pessimism. Without revolutionary optimism, one cannot brave the hardships and trials or fight at the risk of one’s life for the future. We should help the people to get through the difficulties, singing and dancing, especially when the situation is difficult and complicated. Party and working people’s organizations should organize various mass cultural and artistic activities as suited to the specific situation so that the whole country is filled with revolutionary optimism.