Politics

The Korean people were all eager to build a new society after achieving the historic cause of national liberation, but they were at a loss what to do next and which path they would follow.  

Thus how to adopt the line of building a new country emerged as a vital issue for them. 

On August 20 1945, five days after the Japanese imperialists surrendered, General Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of military and political cadres of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army and delivered a historic speech titled, “On Building the Party, State and Armed Forces in the Liberated Homeland”.

In his speech he laid down the line of building a new country which called for carrying out the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal democratic revolution by advancing the Korean revolution continuously on the basis of the victory already won and building a prosperous and independent sovereign state by the efforts of the Korean people themselves, and the three immediate tasks of building the party, state and army for putting it into effect.

Later, he energetically led the work to fulfil all these enormous tasks successfully.

Under his leadership, the genuine Party, revolutionary armed forces and state of the people were founded in the country, democratic reforms were carried out to liquidate the colonial and feudal socio-economic relationship, and people-oriented and democratic educational, cultural and judicial and procuratorial systems were established in the country in a few years after liberation.

At that time, local newspapers carried many articles dealing with the response of the Korean people to the changes brought about in their life by the introduction of democratic reforms.

A peasant who had become the master of the land thanks to the Law on Agrarian Reform gave vent to his excitement, saying that now his family cultivated 2 400 phyong (1 phyong is 3. 305 9 square metres) of paddy fields, 3 000 phyong of non-paddy fields and 500 phyong of cotton, potato and other fields. All his family members worked together to do weeding one more time and harvested more crops than average, he said. “Now, nine of my family members are living a sufficient life and my brothers and I are studying at our leisure.”

Referring to the changes taking place in his life after the enforcement of the Labour Law, a worker said that after he worked for eight hours and studied at the adults’ school in the factory for two hours, he had enough time to manage the household affairs. “Thanks to the benefits of the social insurance programmes, I received kind medical treatment from doctors of the social insurance hospital for 20 days without paying money to cure my illness.” 

A woman who was a deputy to the First Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK wrote in her memoirs:

“As happy events took place one after another in the liberated country, my villagers continued to shout hurrah. The Law on Agrarian Reform was followed by the Labour Law. Some days later, the Law on Sex Equality was promulgated this time. We could not easily believe the law which gave us, women who had lived under the heavy pressure of double and triple feudal oppression and chains in the family and society, equal rights with men. Indeed, men, the earth and mountains and rivers changed thanks to the country’s liberation.” 

As seen above, the Korean people, who obtained dignity, freedom and the rights to independent development, enjoyed a genuine life and happiness while creating a new life.