In the wake of the fulfilment of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution after liberation, the DPRK switched over to the socialist revolution. It did not put up the socialist slogan in the postwar days, but made preparations for the socialist revolution as it partially transformed the relations of production along socialist lines.
With a deep insight into the situation at the time when the subjective and objective conditions matured for putting up the slogan in the north of Korea after the war, Kim Il Sung published Every Effort for the Country’s Reunification and Independence and for Socialist Construction in the Northern Half of Korea, theses on the character and tasks of the Korean revolution, in April 1955.
The theses referred to the need for the DPRK to further advance the revolution and switch to the socialist revolution in order to achieve the nationwide victory of the revolution.
They set it as the general task of laying the foundations of socialism to establish the undivided sway of socialist relations of production in towns and countryside by transforming the small commodity and capitalist economic forms and to lay the foundations of socialist industrialization by developing the productivity of the country.
The April theses were a great programme of Juche-oriented socialist revolution and construction which solemnly declared the revolutionary stand of the DPRK to advance by holding aloft the banner of Korean-style socialism.
The DPRK set agricultural cooperativization as a primary task in accelerating the socialist revolution in earnest.
By relying on the existing theories and experiences of foreign countries, it was unthinkable to cooperativize agriculture in the DPRK after the war since everything was reduced to ashes.
But the DPRK saw the condition for realizing agricultural cooperativization quite differently. It found an essential prerequisite for agricultural cooperativization not in whether the rural economy is equipped with modern technology, but in whether the cooperativization arises as a vital need of farmers and whether the internal forces to undertake it are available.
Proceeding from the specific conditions of the country after the war, the DPRK put forward the policy of carrying out the socialist transformation of the economic form of agriculture, prior to the technical reconstruction of the rural economy.
The class policy was set as to firmly rely on poor peasants, strengthening the alliance with the middle peasants and restricting and gradually remoulding the rich farmers in conducting the agricultural cooperativization movement.
The agricultural cooperatives, which were formed on an experimental basis, displayed their superiority from the first year of their formation with the positive support and assistance of the state, and the agricultural cooperativization movement entered the stage of mass movement in 1955.
The movement was proceeded smoothly and at a fast pace and 80.9 percent of all the rural households joined the cooperatives at the close of 1956. It was rounded off in the DPRK in August 1958.
The completion of agricultural cooperativization was another historic victory achieved in resolving the problem of peasants and agriculture.
The successful cooperativization eradicated the source of exploitation and oppression in the countryside and turned farmers from peasant proprietors into socialist agricultural workers, masters of large-scale collective economy.
Meanwhile, the socialist transformation of capitalist trade and industry was carried on in an original way. According to preceding theories and experiences, the capitalist trade and industry had been regarded as the object of expropriation in the stage of the socialist revolution since it was an economic form sweating working people.
As the capitalist traders and manufacturers recognized the correctness of the government’s policy of cooperativization and fully accepted and supported it, there was no need to expropriate their property and eliminate them. Moreover, the non-comprador capitalists in the DPRK played an important part in a new Korea building after liberation and took part in the struggle for victory in the war and most of the tradesmen and manufacturers were running businesses while taking part in productive labour.
In view of such a situation the government set forth a policy of transforming the capitalist tradesmen and industrialists along socialist lines without confiscating them.
In transforming them on socialist lines, it ensured that the voluntary principle was strictly maintained, they were admitted into different forms of cooperatives according to their will and all of them were transformed into socialist workers by closely combining the transformation of economic forms with the reforming of men.
Considering that the tradesmen were not accustomed to labour, cooperatives specializing in marketing were formed first to gradually develop them into the ones conducting both production and marketing and finally into the producers’ cooperatives mainly dealing with production.
In the period, the government trusted the cooperative members who had been tradesmen and manufacturers as lasting companions of the revolution, not temporary ones, and led them to enjoy a fulfilling life.
Thus, the socialist transformation of handicrafts and capitalist trade and industry was carried out comparatively smoothly in a matter of 4 to 5 years, concurrently with agricultural cooperativization.
Thanks to the socialist transformation of the relations of production, the DPRK achieved a historic victory in the socialist revolution, which meant the establishment of a most advanced socialist system which is free from exploitation and oppression and which the Korean people had long desired.
The establishment of the socialist system in the DPRK is the brilliant fruition of President Kim Il Sung’s original policy of socialist transformation and wise leadership.
In September 1958, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly conferred the title of DPRK Labour Hero on him as he led the socialist revolution and construction to victory.
By Jong Sun Bok PT
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