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

    February 26, 1996

    The Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery on Mt. Taesong is a fine construction on a good site. Such a splendid martyrs cemetery is to be found nowhere else in the world. Not only our people but foreigners who visit it express their great admiration. The martyrs cemetery is patent proof of the noble moral obligation of our Party to respect the revolutionary seniors. Situated near Jujak Peak, where the martyrs cemetery is sited, is the Kumsusan Memorial Palace12. The peak commands a bird’s-eye view of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace; it looks as if the revolutionary martyrs are standing guard over the palace. From now on, President Kim Il Sung will be together with his comrades-in-arms for ever. The blood-sealed ties between them are the same whether they are alive or dead.

    Officials who retire after long service should be accorded proper treatment. I have heard that, after their retirement was announced, some Party officials are not willing to talk to them and some organs fail to arrange a farewell party for them. They probably feel regret at leaving their posts due to their advanced age, and if their Party organizations and fellow officials fail to treat them warmly, it will be very disappointing for them. Judging from this, it seems our officials are cold and inhumane. Officials talk much about comradeship, but

    many of them lack it in practice. President Kim Il Sung said that the revolution begins with winning comrades, adding that a true comrade cannot be bought, not even with thousands of pieces of gold.

    Those who have worked for the Party and the revolution for a long time may not work as quickly as younger people, due to their advanced age, but they should be respected as revolutionary seniors and their merits assessed as such. It would be advisable to give them their dues, give them solace, and arrange a small party for them. This will be good, not bad. For a person to retire on a pension is different from being transferred to another post.

    Officials should be more sensitive. Some days ago I had the officials from the central organs invited to an art performance with their wives, and they were all pleased. Some of them were apparently attending the theatre with their wives for the first time since their marriage. It is good for officials to go to the theatre with their wives when they have leisure time. It is not advisable for them to go no matter where with their wives, but why not go to the theatre? Judging from their unwillingness to go out with their wives, we can see that our men still entertain the remnants of feudal ideas. The idea that man is superior to woman still finds expression in various aspects of life. That is why I had the performance of artistes at the Mansudae Art Theatre continued so that officials could enjoy it with their wives.

    We should create model communist morality and imbue the whole society with communist moral traits.

    In having communist moral traits ingrained throughout society, it is important to educate the people to observe propriety and public ethics. Only when they observe these in their conduct will they be able to deepen their inter-personal relationships, achieve the unity and harmony of the collective and establish a sound and cultured way of living in society. Propriety and public ethics are important criteria by which to judge a person’s personality and level of culture. Schools, society and families should intensify education in propriety and public ethics.

    Ill-mannered practices are currently being revealed in aspects of social life. Take the manner of speaking as an example. Instead of using respectful vocatives, some people use uncouth ones, like “hey.” Worse still, quite a few people use the low form of speech to their seniors and the elderly. Husbands and wives do not seem to use the vocative “my dear” in daily life. Parents use vulgar words when they speak to their children. In the light of all this, there is clearly a problem in family education. Parents, who ought to speak to their children using words of educational significance, speak without thinking, leading their children to follow the uncultured manner of speaking.

    Ill-mannered practices are more serious among young people and children. In the past 20 years, uncultured and ill-mannered practices have been revealed in their way of speaking and emotional life; these must be corrected as soon as possible. Communists should not tolerate them. If we tolerate them, the good manners and customs handed down from our ancestors will gradually disappear and the character unique to our nation will be lost. From olden times our country has been called a country of courteous people in the East. We cannot tolerate young people and children in the era of the Workers’ Party of Korea being scolded for lack of propriety and ethics.

    The ill-mannered practices manifested among young people and children are not only attributable to their parents, but mainly to the fact that schools have failed to conduct communist moral education properly. Communist morality is a school subject, but too much is made of political education at the expense of moral education related to daily life. Apparently, people are confusing education in loyalty to the Party and leader with general education in communist morality. Of course, education in loyalty to the Party and leader constitutes the most important part of education in communist morality. For all that, education in loyalty is not the whole of communist moral education. In communist moral education there are many things to teach, such as good manners and public ethics.

    The content of the subject of communist moral education should be reviewed, and amendments made where necessary at an early date. It would be advisable in communist moral education to introduce a separate subject dealing with education other than education in loyalty, and to cover general communist morality, such as good manners and public ethics.

    We should ensure that teacher-training institutes conduct proper education in good manners and ethics.

    If students are to observe good manners and ethics, their teachers should set a good example. If teachers speak to their students in a rude way, not in a cultured way, the students will follow their example and use uncouth words in the army if they join it after graduation. If teachers are not exemplary in observing good manners and ethics, they cannot bring up the rising generation into true workers who are equipped with communist moral traits. Teacher-training institutes should conduct proper education in good manners and ethics so as to train teachers who are equipped with ennobling communist moral traits.

    A Party-wide and society-wide effort should be directed at communist moral education so that our country will exalt the honour of a country of courteous people in the East in the era of the Workers’ Party of Korea. School education alone is not enough for solving the problem of imbuing the whole society with sound communist moral traits. While schools are intensifying communist moral education, a society-wide effort should be made to establish communist moral traits. Cardres, Party workers in particular, should take the lead in establishing sound moral traits in society.