Songun and the June 15 Reunification Era in Korea

Five years have passed since the publication of the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration which has inspired the divided Korean nation with hope for and confidence in reunification. With the signing and implementation of the declaration a new turn has been marked in the 60-year-long division of Korea. The Koreans call it “the June 15 reunification era.”

What is at the root of the surprising realities which can be likened to the dawn of new history?

The June 15 joint declaration, the outcome of Songun

The June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, which dispelled the gloom of division over the Korean Peninsula and ushered in the dawn of reunification in 2000, a watershed in the century, did not come of itself.

In retrospect, the world was in turmoil towards the end of the 20^th century. The former Soviet Union and many other socialist countries fell one after another, with the result that the United States has become “the sole superpower” of the world. War and murder were rife in many parts of the world owing to the strong arm policies and arbitrariness of the US, and unrest and terror swept across the planet. The north Korean people had to defend their socialism single-handed against the US, the chieftain of imperialism, in those hard times when they suffered the greatest national loss, because President Kim Il Sung they looked on as their father and savior for scores of years passed away on July 8, 1994. They then fell victim to the direst natural calamities for many consecutive years. Socialist Korea found itself at the crossroads of life and death due to the all-out political pressure, military bluffs and economic blockade of the US and its satellite forces that were overjoyed at the arrival of “a golden opportunity” to smother socialist Korea.

At this juncture Kim Jong Il, Chairman of the National Defense Commission and the leader of the Democratic People’s  Republic of Korea raised the banner of Songun higher than ever. Giving priority and importance to military affairs and thus putting up the army as the pillar and main force for the socialist cause and maximizing national strength as a whole by relying on it, the Songun policy helped defend the socialism of Korea in the worst adversity.

People, however, had not yet known that Songun was linked with national reunification.

The matchless might of north Korea consolidated by the Songun politics not only stoutly defended its socialist system against the threats and challenges of the US but also foiled the US in its every attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Korean nation and aggravate the south-north showdown. Further it created a peaceful situation favorable for the unity and reunification of the Korean nation. Whenever the US threatened north Korea with arms, a bombshell announcement came from north Korea to the effect that those who dare attack it will be hit mercilessly wherever they may be on the earth. This announcement will by no means be an empty talk, considering that north Korea successfully launched a satellite in August 1998. A few years ago a supercomputer at the Pentagon produced an answer that when the US starts war with north Korea, the US troop’s casualties will be 50,000 at the first stage and 400,000 to 500,000 in case the war will be prolonged, that the daily war spendings will be 5.7 to 7.1 billion US dollars on an average, but that the US will lose the war all the same. As many analysts of the world remark, the US is kept from war with north Korea not because it has no intention to do so but because it is afraid of the consequence. Late in the 1990s when the crisis on the Korean Peninsula reached the limit because the OPLAN “5027-98,” a US scenario for another Korean war, was opened to the public, war did not break out but, on the contrary, the tourist road was opened up for the south Koreans to come to the Mt. Geumgang resort in north Korea famous for its beauty across the Military Demarcation Line. This was brought about by Songun. In those days many south Korean figures, including Chung Ju Young, who was the honorary president of the Hyundai Business Group of south Korea visited Pyongyang and the foundations for inter-Korean economic cooperation were laid.

The leader discerned the internal and external situation and south-north relations which changed favorably under the impact of the Songun politics, and on this basis, decided early in 2000, the turning point of a millennium to bring about a turn in the movement for Korea ’s reunification. As a result, the leaders of south and north Korea met in Pyongyang for the first time in the 50-odd-year-long history of Korea’s division and the historic June 15 Joint Declaration, a milestone in Korea’s reunification movement, was signed.

The implementation of the June 1 5 declaration defended by Songun

The five years following the adoption of the June 15 Declaration have witnessed the south and the north of Korea widening the way to reconciliation, cooperation, unity and reunification under the basic idea of the declaration “By our nation itself.” The reunification-related functions which used to go on lamely on one side in the past came to take place in grand style as festivals of the whole country attended by people from the south and the north on the nation’s common commemoration days like June 15 and August 15 (anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese military occupation in 1945), and many reunification movement organizations at home and abroad joined hands with each other and conducted the nationwide reunification movement. Despite the complications caused by the maneuvers of the separatists within and without multi-channel talks and contacts like ministerial talks took place between the north and the south, attracting the eyes of the public at home and abroad. North-South talks, contacts, exchange and cooperation deepened and expanded in political, economic cultural and many other fields. The railways and roads between north and south which had remained cut off were linked again, and the closed sea and air routes opened. The hot wind for reunification stirred up by the north Korean athletes and their cheering squads shook Busan, Daegu and all other places of south Korea--scenes which were something beyond imagination in the past.

But all this came not without difficulty. The implementation of the June 15 Declaration met with the most serious obstacles and challenges because of the persistent hostile policy towards north Korea pursued by the United States that controls south Korea politically and militarily, particularly because of the advent of the Bush administration which is most bellicose in American history.

Nevertheless the June 15 Joint Declaration has been implemented without letup. This is inconceivable without the Songun politics of the leader.

The driving force for Korea ’s reunification has been built up uninterruptedly thanks to the Songun politics.

Under the Songun politics of putting up as the main force of the revolution the Korean People’s Army that is strongest in revolutionary character, organization and fighting power,        the traditional single-minded unity of north Korea has been consolidated into a steel-like unity marked by the oneness of the thought and fighting morale of the army and the people with the leadership of the revolution as the core. In this situation the army and people of north Korea have been firmly prepared as the force leading the reunification movement.

The Songun politics has exerted a profound influence on the south Korean people, too. They take compatriotic pride in the attitude of north Korea that counters the hard line of America, “the only superpower” in the world, with the toughest policy and guards its sovereignty and dignity. They have now become convinced that when they join forces with north Korea which is so powerful and dignified, they will be able to reunify the country and open up a new era of national prosperity. It is not fortuitous that in recent years the struggle for independence against the US has spread like a prairie fire through all parts of south Korea.

It can be said that the implementation of the June 15 Declaration has been protected by arms of Songun.

The Bush administration which overtly revealed its hostile policy towards north Korea at its inception called north Korea “an axis of evil” and designated it as “a target of nuclear preemption,” and pushed the situation to the brink of war fussing about “the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula” again. Under such circumstances the leader spent nearly all his time on the front line, boosting defense capacity further. But for the great war deterrent power he had built up, the Korean Peninsula would have been plunged into the catastrophe of war, and the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration would have been reduced to a mere scrap of paper to be burnt amid the flames. History knows cases of the Olympics, a regular world function, being suspended by war.

But, thanks to the Songun politics of resolutely shattering any threat and provocation, the reunification-related functions took place without cease on the Korean Peninsula even in the strained, acute situation about which all the world was concerned. Even the Gaesong Industrial Park which can be called a symbol or model of south-north economic cooperation is under construction near the Military Demarcation Line.