On August 1, 1991, five years ago, the respected leader President
Kim Il Sung published an important plan to achieve the unification
of Korea entitled, "Let us Achieve the Great Unity of Our Nation."
From the historical viewpoint, President Kim Il Sung pointed
out, there are no grounds which can justify the division of the
country into "two Koreas." The Koreans are a single nation of the
same blood. They have lived on the same land, sharing the same
culture and using the same language for several thousand years.
Therefore, the Korean nation must by no means be divided into two.
Responding to the unanimous desire of the Korean people for
reunification, President Kim Il Sung pointed out that the
unification of Korea can only be accomplished based on an
independent national spirit. He called for the north and the south
to work together in conformity with the principles of independence,
peaceful reunification and great national unity, irrespective of
all differences.
The Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
put forward a confederacy formula, in which the main idea is one
nation, one state, two systems and two governments. Different
ideologies and systems within the nation are no problem in
reunification and mutual cooperation for co-prosperity of the
nation, Kim Il Sung pointed out.
The Korean people, in conformity with these principles, are
demanding free contacts and dialogue amongst the Korean people, and
that the wall of division, which divides Korea from sea to sea at
the 38th parallel be pulled down, and that political and legal
institutions such as the "National Security Law" and the "Agency
for National Security Planning" be dismantled.
Great National Unity cannot be achieved by merely paying
lip-service to it, President Kim Il Sung pointed out. Under the
leadership of General Kim Jong Il, every effort is being made to
achieve it. South Korean president Kim Young-Sam, however, has
repeatedly declared that "unification is only possible under the
free democratic system" by which he means the regime which exists
in the south, propped up by the presence of U.S. imperialist
troops, the "national Security Law" and the "Agency for National
Security Planning." These laws mean that anyone who so much as
writes a letter to a family member in the north can be imprisoned
for maintaining contacts with the "enemy," and political rights do
not exist for anyone who even discusses achieving national
unification on any basis other than the elimination of the system
in the DPRK.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
