Kim Jong Il laid the foundation for the Workers’ Party of Korea’s unique ideology and work style-Christer Lundgren Chairman ERCFKP and Chairman Sweden-Korea Friendship Association

                                                                                       

     

                                                                   

June 19 this year marks 60 years since Chairman Kim Jong Il began working in the Central

Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. During the first five years of his work in the Central

Committee, he led the work to shape the distinctive features that still today characterize the party.

After Kim Jong Il graduated from Kim Il Sung University, President Kim Il Sung wanted him to

gain proper experience to lead the Workers’ Party of Korea and the revolution.

On April 1, 1964, he was nominated as a member of the Party’s Central Committee. The first thing

he did was to familiarize himself with the Party’s work in various areas – the military, the economy,

culture, the youth union and more – and at different levels – from the Central Committee to the

local party organizations. He did not do it sitting in his office, but through a large number of on-site

visits.

On June 19, 1964, he began working for the Central Committee. In a speech the next day entitled

“Let us forever develop our party into the Party of Comrade Kim Il Sung,” he said:

“The major line in our Party’s work and activities is to thoroughly establish the leader’s ideological

system throughout the Party. Establishing his ideological system throughout the Party is a

fundamental principle of the building and activities of our Party and the most important undertaking

that should be consistently held fast to as long as our Party exists and acts.”

In 1964 and 1965, Kim Jong Il gave on-the-spot guidance to various provinces and to the arts and

literature sector and the press to investigate how the Party’s work there was functioning. With this

as a basis, he ensured that a tight network was established to carry out Kim Il Sung’s instructions

and carry them out in a revolutionary spirit.

By this time, Kim Il Sung had established the Chongsanri spirit and the Chongsanri method, new

socialist methods of mass leadership in agriculture, and the Taean labour system, a new socialist

system of management in industry, to cater to the people’s wishes and ideas while he lived with

them and ate the same food as them. Breaking with formalistic management methods and creating a

better work style was a main task within the Party.

On January 8, 1965, Kim Jong Il gave a speech to members of the Central Committee, “Let’s Make

Party Work Proper Work with the People,” in which he outlined principles for improving the work

method and work style so that Party work truly became work with the people.

After he started his work in the Central Committee, he decided to thoroughly evaluate the

corresponding revolutionary ideology of the working class from a Juche perspective. In May 1966,

together with social scientists, he began work on a careful study of 30 classic works by Marx,

Engels, Lenin and Stalin.

In three detailed speeches under the collective heading “On Correctly Analyzing and Reviewing the

History of the Preceding Revolutionary Ideology of the Working Class”, he clarified principles for

studying the classics of Marxism-Leninism. The aim was to put Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary ideas

in an idea-historical perspective, demonstrate their originality and highlight the merits of Marxism-

Leninism as well as its historical limitations and ideological weaknesses from a Juche standpoint.

This ideological work lasted for three years, until July 1, 1969, and led to the conclusion that Kim Il

Sung’s revolutionary ideology could not be described as a creative application of Marxism-

Leninism based on Korean conditions or an application of Marxism-Leninism in a new era, but was

a new and original ideology that could be named only after him.

A consequence of this extensive theoretical work was that the Workers’ Party of Korea later, at its

Fifth Congress, established that Kim Il Sung’s Juche idea is the Party’s guiding ideology.

This ideological and organizational work during Kim Jong Il’s first years in the Central Committee

explains why the party, despite great difficulties, has stuck to its ideology and its revolutionary

position and maintained its firm base among the working class and the people.