UNITY BASED ON REVOLUTIONARY COMRADESHIP IS THE SOURCE OF THE INVINCIBILITY OF THE PEOPLE'S ARMY

Speech at the Banquet Given in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Heroic Korean People's Army February 8. 1973

(Originally Published by the Foreign Language Publishing House Pyongyang, Korea 1975)

Comrades,

Today we greet the auspicious 25th anniversary of the foundation of the heroic Korean People's Army, our Party's revolutionary armed force.

Availing myself of this opportunity, I am going to say a few words about the need to give greater scope to the fine tradition of revolutionary comradeship in the People's Army.

What is most important in the revolutionary struggle is organization and unity. One can never make revolution single-handed. To wing the revolutionary struggle there must be a strong revolutionary organization composed of men with one idea and purpose and their ideological unity and cohesion must be guaranteed.

The unity and cohesion of the revolutionary organization can be achieved only when all its members arm themselves with the same idea, and trust and sincerely love each other. In other words, such unity and cohesion is based on the comradely love of its members.

The word "comrade" has a deep meaning. It means an associate in purpose, that is, a person with the same idea. We address a person as "comrade" when that person has the same idea as ours and fights with the same goal. So, the word "comrade" is an honourable and noble form of address between revolutionaries. It expresses trust in and love for a revolutionary comrade-in-arms.

There may be a spurious comrade within the revolutionary ranks. A spurious comrade is one who, while belonging to the revolutionary ranks and outwardly striving for the sake of the revolution, has an axe to grind. If a man and wife have different ends to serve, though sharing the same bed, they are not a couple in the real sense of the word and there will be no true love between them. Likewise, he who has a different idea, has an axe to grind wing the revolutionary ranks, is not a true but a spurious comrade. There can be no true comradeship among sham comrades.

True comradely relations and revolutionary comradeship between the people never come of themselves. They are formed and consolidated only through a revolutionary struggle. Without a revolutionary struggle there can be no revolutionary comradeship. If there is no revolutionary struggle there will be neither revolutionary comrades nor revolutionary comradeship; there will be only acquaintanceship such as between friends, pals, and brothers. Through a revolutionary struggle people come to trust and love each other as comrades and develop their comradely love.

There are different kinds of love. There is love between man and wife, love between father and son, mother and son, love between brothers, love between friends and love between comrades. Of these, the most valuable, the most priceless is love between revolutionary comrades. Love between father and son, love between mother and son, or love between man and wife will deepen when it is lined with comradely love.

Parental love is important for a man when he is young. However, when he set off on the road of revolutionary struggle comradely love becomes more precious for him than parental love. A revolutionary cannot live even a moment without his revolutionary comrades, though he can do without his parents. Love between revolutionary comrades enables one to preserve one's political integrity and fight to the last in the glorious revolutionary ranks.

Throughout my revolutionary struggle form my childhood I have keenly felt that revolutionary comradeship is more precious than parental love. I have been more loved by my comrades than by my father and mother. I was receptive to my father's love until I was 14, and since then, have lived under the loving care of my comrades.

In the past when we were engaged in underground activities and the anti-Japanese armed struggle, many of my comrades helped and protected me in the teeth of hardship and danger. They looked after me with genuine sincerity: being anxious about my health, they took pains to get millet for me, whereas they themselves subsisted on corn. Among the anti-Japanese guerrillas there were many who laid down there precious lives to safeguard their headquarters from the enemy. Thus, I have lived by my comrades' love.

A lofty spirit of revolutionary comradeship always prevailed among the anti-Japanese guerrillas. Although the anti-Japanese armed struggle was of an unprecedented arduous nature, the anti-Japanese guerrillas were able valorously to overcome all difficulties and trials and win a shining victory, because they fought in firm unity, with one ideology and will, giving full play to their communist spirit of revolutionary comradeship, and defeated Japanese imperialism.

If the anti-Japanese guerrillas had failed to secure the rock-like unity and cohesion of their revolutionary ranks based on revolutionary comradeship, they would have been unable to carry on the armed struggle against the formidable Japanese imperialist for 15 long years. When a revolutionary army is firmly united with revolutionary comradeship it will be able to fight the enemy not for 15 years but for 20 years, even for 100 years, and emerge victorious from any difficult and complicated situation.

Our People's Army has carried forward the sublime tradition of revolutionary comradeship established during the anti-Japanese armed struggle and strengthened and developed itself in the course of its 25 years of existence, enriching this tradition.

Unity based on revolutionary comradeship is the source of the invincibility of the People's Army - from the rank-and-file to officers and generals - are revolutionary warriors who fight for the revolution, arms in hand; they are revolutionary comrades who shed their blood and share life and death, joy and sorrow in their battles against the enemy. If all soldiers of the People's Army strive for the rock-like unity and cohesion of their ranks, giving full play to their lofty spirit of revolutionary comradeship, they can overcome all difficulties and always wing the battle against the enemy.

We have raised the slogan of "Unity between officers and men, unity between superiors and subordinates". And this slogan can be put into effect only when every serviceman displays the lofty spirit of revolutionary comradeship to the full. Officers and men, superiors and subordinates, can be fused in one body and one will only when they are strongly bound in revolutionary comradeship.

Among the comrades present here some have more than 40 years of comradeship with us and others 25, 20, or 15 years. Of course, those who have worked with us from the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle may have deeper comradeship with us. Those who have served in the People's Army for 25, 20, or 15 years are revolutionary comrades who have the same aim we have. Since "a decade changes the appearance of mountains and rivers" as the saying goes, 15 or 20 years is by no means a short period. We can say that those who have worked for more than 15 years with us in the People's Army are also our revolutionary comrades tested by the Party.

At the time we founded the People's Army, we only had a core of a few thousand revolutionary elements who had been tempered in the revolutionary struggle. Today, however their are tens of thousands of revolutionary comrades who have been steeled in the struggle to found the People's Army, in the three years of the Fatherland Liberation War against the armed invasion of the US imperialists and through the struggle to defend the gains of the socialist revolution after the war. This shows that our People's Army has developed into an indestructible force of revolutionaries who have been firmly united with one ideology and one will on the basis of revolutionary comradeship.

There can be no united based on comradeship in an imperialist army of aggressors or a colonial mercenary army. Take the south Korean "National Army" for example. It has no comradely relationship but only monetary relationship and relationship between superior and an inferior according to rank. Therefore, it is beset with distrust, conflicts and contradictions. How great are the contradictions within the south Korean "National Army" can be seen clearly in the relationship between the south Korean rulers and the corps commanders. The former replace the latter within three years of their appointment, because the south Korean rulers do not trust the corps commanders and fear that they will establish their own position. An army lacking comradely unity and cohesion is no more than rabble.

Our People's Army is invincible because all its officers and men are fused in revolutionary comradeship and closely bound by one ideology and one will.

Today we are faced with the task of further strengthening the People's Army into a revolutionary armed force, in which every man is a match for a hundred, for a thousand. In order to strengthen the People's Army, we must bring into fuller play the traditional revolutionary comradeship among the soldiers and achieve the steel-like unity and cohesion of the entire army based on revolutionary comradeship.

What is important here is to intensify the ideological education of our soldiers in revolutionary comradeship and launch a vigorous ideological struggle among them.

People form the same locality do not always become true comrades or form comradely unity. Only when they have the same idea and will to carry out revolution can they become true revolutionary comrades and achieve revolutionary unity. Therefore, men's comradely unity should be judged by whether they have the same idea and will to carry out their revolutionary struggle, that is, whether they are armed with the same revolutionary idea.

What is most important in cementing unity based on revolutionary comradeship is to firmly equip all the soldiers with our Party's monolithic ideology; the Juche idea. When they are firmly armed with our Party's Juche idea and think and act as required by this idea, revolutionary comradeship will be fully displayed and revolutionary solidarity further cemented.

Soldiers must not cover up each other's defects or fail to criticize these defects on the plea of displaying revolutionary comradeship and strengthening comradely cohesion within the People's Army. Only praising one's comrade and not criticizing his faults by no means displays a comradely love. Criticizing and reprimanding a revolutionary comrade for his errors is an essential means with which to firmly equip him with our party's revolutionary idea, the monolithic ideology, and enable him to join us in carrying the revolution through to the end. If one truly loves one's comrade, one should help him to rectify his errors in time through criticisms and reprimands. Only in this way is it possibly to achieve truly revolutionary cohesion built on the Party's monolithic ideology.

When our comrades commit any errors we criticize and, at times, punish them. Of course, we feel very sorry after punishing our comrades. So we call up or personally meet these comrades and explain to them in detail what was wrong with their work and how to correct it.

It would be wrong for you not to reprimand your revolutionary comrade for his faults because it is painful for you to do so. In order to rectify his faults you must criticize and, if necessary, reprimand him. Of course, you must not use coercive methods in the army, such as putting soldiers into the guardhouse for their errors. By coercive methods, you can neither educate the soldiers properly nor strengthen the revolutionary cohesion of our troops.

Long ago, we abolished the guardhouse system in the People's Army. At that time some people insisted that the guardhouse was necessary for the army to enforce discipline. Their assertion that the guardhouse was indispensable for an army in order to maintain its discipline and train its men show that they lacked revolutionary comradeship and the ability to educate them. Some people were worried that the abolition of the guardhouses in the People's Army would bring about a great deal of trouble. But we dispensed with them and instead, intensified ideological education. The result was that the discipline and combat capacity of the People's Army were strengthened still more.

Life proves that giving full play to the fine tradition of revolutionary comradeship among the soldiers is a major guarantee for increasing the might of the People's Army. Therefore, availing myself of this auspicious occasion, I would like to earnestly ask you to keep up within the People's Army the work of giving full play to revolutionary comradeship, the lofty moral quality based on the Party's monolithic ideology.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the heroic Korean People's Army, allow me to propose a toast to the unbreakable unity and cohesion of the ranks of the People's Army based on revolutionary comradeship, to the health of the comrades who have worked with us for more than 40 years, to the health of the comrades who have worked with us for 25, 20, and 15 years, to the health of new cadres and all other comrades present here.