Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong-il (16 February 1941 - 17 December 2011) was the supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 1994 until his death, holding the offices of Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Quotes

• Independence is an attribute of man, the social being; it should not be viewed as the development to perfection of a natural, biological attribute of living matter. This is, in essence, an evolutionary viewpoint. Of course, we do not deny evolutionism itself. Science has long established the fact that man is a product of ages of evolution. Man is a product of evolution, but not his independence. Independence is a social product. Independence is an attribute given to man by society, not nature; it is not a natural gift, but has been formed and developed socially and historically.
  • "On some questions in understanding the Juche philosophy", speech delivered to theoretical propagandists of the Party, April 2, 1974

• It's all a lie. They're just pretending to praise me.
  • Remark to kidnapped South Korean director Shin Sang-ok (7 March 1983); quoted in Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader

• In their day, Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin represented the aspirations and demands of the exploited working masses, and the cause of socialism was inseparably linked with their names.
  • "Let us advance under the banner of Marxism-Leninism and the Juche Idea" (3 May 1983)

• Glory to the heroic soldiers of the People's Army!
  • Remarks at a military review in 1992, and the only occasion of Kim's voice being broadcast in the DPRK[1]

• The "human rights" advertised by the imperialists are privileges of the rich, privileges to do anything on the strength of money. The imperialists do not recognize the right of unemployed people to work, or the right of orphans or people without support to eat and survive, for instance, as human rights. As they do not grant working people elementary rights to existence and as they pursue anti-popular policies and policies of racial and national discrimination and colonialism, the imperialists have no right to speak about human rights. The imperialists are the most heinous enemy of human rights.
  • "Socialism is a Science", article in Rodong Sinmun (1 November 1994)

• Karl Marx made a great contribution to the liberation cause of mankind, and because of his immortal exploits his name is still enshrined in the hearts of the working class and peoples of all countries.
  • Rodong Sinmun (25 December 1995) "Respecting the forerunners of the revolution is a noble moral obligation of revolutionaries"

• I am the object of criticism around the world. But I think that since I am being discussed, then I am on the right track.
  • Conversation with Konstantin Pulikovsky (Summer 2001), quoted in his book Orient Express

• Our Party’s Songun-based revolutionary leadership, Songun-based politics, is a revolutionary mode of leadership and socialist mode of politics that gives top priority to military affairs, and defends the country, the revolution and socialism and dynamically pushes ahead with overall socialist construction by dint of the revolutionary mettle and combat capabilities of the People’s Army.
  • "The Songun-based revolutionary line is a great revolutionary line of our era and an ever-victorious banner of our revolution", address to the senior officials of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party (29 January 2003)

• I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired.
  • "North Korea Dear Leader Kim Jong Il: "I'm an Internet expert too"". Ars Technica. 2007-10-05. Retrieved on 2008-01-01. 

• Although the Great Leader told us that we have to let the people eat rice with meat soup, wear silk clothes and live in a tiled roof house, we have not accomplished his will.… We have already reached the status of a strong country in the military field, let alone politics and ideology, but there are still quite a number of things lacking in people's lives. I am trying to implement his will by solving these problems.
  • Rodung Sinmun (9 January 2010) [2]

• It is my greatest wish to enable our people to live with nothing to envy at the earliest possible date, and it is my greatest pleasure to work energetically, sharing my joys and sorrows with our people, on the road of translating my wish into reality.
  • Response to questions from Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency (13 October 2011) [3]

Quotes about Kim Jong-il

• You pushed away the severe storm.
  You made us believe, Comrade Kim Jong-il.
  We cannot live without you.
  Our country cannot exist without you!
  • North Korean song, "No Motherland Without You"

• When General Kim Jong Il shouts to the mountains / Lightning strikes and valleys shatter! …
  With General Kim Jong Il's wondrous strategy / Enemy lines collapse and our foes wail! …
  Under General Kim Jong Il's amazing leadership / Korea goes forth and Juche goes forth!
  • North Korean military anthem, "Thunder Over Jong Il Peak"

• Chukjibeop! Chukjibeop!
  The Dear General uses it! …
  Once the Great Leader also used chukjibeop.
  Today the Dear General does it for him.
  • North Korean popular song, "The Dear General Uses Chukjibeop [Distance-Shrinking Magic]"

• He kills our people, arrests people who are against his administration. He produces drugs. It's a national industry. He kidnaps other people from South Korea, or other democratic countries. He is doing all sorts of bad things, like the devil. Do not trust him, never, ever.
  • Kim Duk Hong, former Korean Workers Party Central Committee worker, in PBS Frontline: Kim's Nuclear Gamble (companion web site)

• When it comes to the orchestration of terror, Kim Jong-il is a natural born genius.
  • Kim Duk Hong quoted in BBC News (21 July 2003) "Inside the mind of Kim Jong-il"

External links

• Profile: Kim Jong-ill