Speech on the occasion of the Anniversary of Kim Jong Il;s commencement of work in the Worker's; Party Central Committee Kim Jong Il – Philosopher Chairman- Contribution of KFA Croatia

Dear comrades,

I am honoured to participate in this event commemorating the start of work of the great leader

comrade Kim Jong Il at the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea. Being here is

very humbling for who am I to talk of such a great man? And among people who know more,

have closer relations to his country and who have visited it, no less. I feel like I have, like so

many young people here in the West, years of my life on insecurity, on studying too long, on

silly arguments. Yet moving into professional life, a role model appears before me, the role

model of chairman Kim Jong Il.

In his Eleven Theses on Feuerbach, Karl Marx famously said “The philosophers have only

interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.“, those words

being significant enough to even be inscribed upon his grave. We might ask ourselves, once

the world has been changed, what then? Marx's direction was eventually followed and in 1917

the Russian Empire was transformed into the first Marxist state, the Soviet Union forever

changing the world under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. Kim Jong Il's predecessor, the

great leader Kim Il Sung similarly changed Korea forever, achieving a great victory for both

Marxism and the working people of Korea. But it wasn't only one victory, it was victory after

victory! Two most obvious ones being the victory against the Japanese and the victory against

the American puppet regime in the south of Korea. Kim Jong Il had large shoes to fill. Yet, he

stood up to the challenge. He continued leading Korea into victories. He overcame all

obstacles, cared for the people, preserved Korean independence in a rapidly changing world

and even brought it to new hights. Korea became a nuclear power that the world has learned

to either fear or respect. As a response, its enemies started making up all sorts of horrible lies

which we gathered here today hope to expose. Kim Jong Il has proven himself on the world

stage as a capable man of action. But we also know him as a great theoretician of Juche, the

ideology of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. While it was originally

conceptualized by Kim Il Sung, the most authoritative text on it has since 1982 been Kim

Jong Il's On the Juche Idea. On top of being an ideological text, it is a great work of

philosophy as well, positing a view of the human being as possessing independence, creativity

and consciousness. It is incredibly sad how widespread the rumour is that Juche is a deviation

from Marxism and something separate. Anyone who has read On the Juche Idea knows this

isn't true since in that text comrade Kim Jong Il makes frequent references to Marx, Engels

and Lenin and clearly positions Juche and his own thought in the same tradition. Its relation to

Marxism is most clearly expressed as follows:

It can be said that the history of the communist movement spanning a hundred and

scores of years is a history of working class leaders creating and developing revolutionary

ideas, a history in which these ideas have been applied to transform the world. In the mid-

19th century Marx and Engels propounded Marxism. Thus they highlighted the historical

mission and a path of liberation that had to be followed by the working class that appeared on

the arena of struggle and stimulated the fight against capital, ushering in the rise of the

international communist movement. Lenin developed Marxism and advanced Leninism in

accordance with the new historical conditions whereby capitalism had entered the phase of

imperialism, with the result that he inspired the working class and the rest of the people to the

struggle to destroy imperialist strongholds and to achieve freedom and liberation. This

marked the beginning of transition from capitalism to socialism.

Our leader created the great Juche idea after acquiring a deep insight into the

requirements of a new era when the oppressed and humiliated masses of the people became

masters of their own destiny. Thus he developed their struggle for independence onto a higher

plane and opened up the age of Juche, a new era in the development of human history.

The revolutionary idea of the working class emerges as the reflection of the mature

demand of history and the revolution in their development.

It is clear then that Juche is a continuation of Marxist thought adapting it to particular material

conditions in which Korea found itself in instead of being something radically new.

As the world was changed, it seems like the need for interpretation emerged again and Kim

Jong Il is a remarkable example of a philosopher of a new age. With great eloquence he

managed to express the cause of Juche for which his predecessor fought. Maybe I am just

partial to look at him this way since philosophy is my area of study. Yet there are lessons to be

learned from Kim Jong Il seen in this way.

What is philosophy? That is a highly contested issue, but the etymology of the word at least

tells us that it is the love of wisdom. What is wisdom? Again, I will not try to give definitions

here, I don't know if it is possible and it goes beyond the scope of this speech. But most

people agree that it is a kind of knowledge gained through experience. The great leader did

not gain his knowledge by dogmatically following the words from the works of Marx, Engels,

Lenin, Stalin and Kim Il Sung. He was their student, constantly questioning what they drew

attention to and using them to seek after the truth. Nor did the great leader come to his

position born into it like a monarch. He worked for it, gaining experience by both working in

the field and studying in his office, climbing through the ranks by showing his competence

Most people agree that wisdom is related to knowing what to do, when to do it and in which

way. Kim Jong Il teaches by example that we should not lock ourselves in ivory towers. He

went into the world and actually used his knowledge because he knew how. Philosophy

should be distinguished from meer eloquence, from sophistry. It should aim towards some

good. Kim Jong Il constantly strived for improvement, both of himself and of his state,

constantly serving the people and the development of history.

Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power

of philosophy ... cities will never have rest from their evils,—no, nor the human race, as I

believe,—and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.

So Plato wrote in his Republic. As a chairman, I dare to say that the great leader Kim Jong Il

joined the rank of statesmen who lived up to this ideal and he also set foundations for other to

follow.