Kim Jong Un--Officials Should Become Communist Revolutionaries Who Are Possessed of the Party’s Original Ideals and Spirit as Their Mental Qualities

Discourse Given to Rodong Sinmun, Organ of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea

October 10, Juche 113 (2024)

Today, when we are making a vigorous advance to confidently open a new golden age of strengthening the Workers’ Party of Korea and an era of achieving the comprehensive rejuvenation of the state, we are greeting the 79th founding anniversary of the WPK, the great guide of the Juche revolution.

The more closely we look back upon the protracted and glorious road of struggle it has followed, the more proud we feel of the greatness of our Party that has written the longest ruling history of socialism together with the Korean revolution, the Korean people and this country and the more precious we feel the unprecedented history of its founding and exploits pioneered and achieved by the forerunners in the revolution.

Greeting the meaningful anniversary of Party founding, I pay the immortal glory and noble tribute to the revolutionaries of the first generation of the WPK, who wonderfully achieved the historic cause of giving birth to the militant General Staff of the revolution in the arduous and complicated struggle.

I also extend warm greetings to the members of the WPK and all other people across the country, who are working with devotion to implement the struggle programme of the Party, supporting it single-heartedly with absolute trust in it and unshakable belief in the victory of the revolution even in the face of all manner of trials and difficulties.

It is very meaningful that today we are reconfirming the justness of the line of building up the Party in the new era, which it is applying, and hardening our revolutionary faith and will to remain loyal to its cause while looking back upon what its original features were on the historic day when the cause of its building was achieved, how it was founded and how its glorious and victorious history started.

Next year we will be greeting the 80th anniversary of Party founding.

A revolutionary party with the longest ruling history–this is not a simple rhetorical expression.

The epochal significance of the day when the birth of the vanguard of the Korean revolution was declared to the world is more conspicuous not simply because thanks to this day our Party could set the longest record in the history of the ruling socialist parties.

It is all the more so because securely preserving the purity of all the precious assets and traditions created in the pioneering period of the revolution poses itself as an important problem decisive of its future development as the revolution advances, and because today we are realizing its importance to the utmost extent.

The sacred ruling history of the WPK spanning nearly 80 years and the great exploits it has performed in these decades for the country, people, times and revolution originate in the characteristic and profound ideals and spirit it adopted at the time of its founding and the steadfast inheritance of them.

In the long period since the day of its grand start to this day, it has led the socialist cause victoriously, firmly maintaining its revolutionary character and original features unique in the world without the slightest deviation or discolouring and enjoying the absolute support and trust of the masses of the people. This is because it has remained faithful to its original ideals and spirit and steadily carried them forward from one generation into the next.

The factor most decisive of the existence and development of a political party is on what ideals and spirit it was founded and how they have been inherited in their pure form.

As a problem that is related with a party’s historical origin and character and the lineage that ensures its existence from one generation into the next, it is of absolute importance in its building and activities.

The original ideals and spirit of the WPK, unprecedented in the history of political parties of the working class, contain a precious iron truth, which was found in the course of pioneering a fresh road of building a revolutionary party and whose everlasting veracity has been verified on the arduous road of consolidating the organizational and ideological foundations to this end.

These great spiritual assets have served as a dynamic force that has enabled the WPK to follow the road resplendent with victory while preserving its character and bloodline and steadily improving its ruling and guiding abilities as a revolutionary party of a Juche type that struggles, guided solely by its leader’s revolutionary ideology, to build a communist society where the people’s ideals are fully realized.

As it had laid its spiritual foundations solid enough to guarantee its eternal viability already before it was born, the WPK has been able to adorn its entire course of arduous and complicated struggle with victories and successes.

But for the spiritual assets bequeathed by the generation of pioneers of the cause of Party founding, it would not have been able to found itself as a mass-based party of the working people in such a short period of time immediately after liberation in defiance of different political parties and groupings advocating isms and assertions of all hues; nor would it have been able to achieve the cause of founding the army and the state and then repulse the armed invasion by the allied imperialist forces–which was a world-startling miracle–thus demonstrating the honour and glory of the new-born Korea.

When the other ruling socialist parties were being swept into the vortex of revisionism and dogmatism resulting in the political upheaval of capitalist revival in a number of countries, it marched forward unflinchingly under the banner of its socialist and communist programme. Its profile is shining as the symbol of a revolutionary party.

Etched in the chronicles of the working-class party building are tragic records of not a few of them, though having been born as the revolutionary vanguard in championing the demands and interests of the working people, giving up their original fighting programmes and the revolutionary spirit of their founder generation, going degenerated in the face of countless challenges and counter-revolutionary offensives, and meeting the end of their existence.

Pursuing reformism by a party in its building on the pretext of the changes in the times will inevitably lead to the deviation from its original ideals and degradation in ideology and spirit, which will in turn weaken its ruling efficiency.

Transformation and innovation is a law-governed demand in party building and an essential precondition for its political leadership over the revolution and construction.

Yet, a revolutionary party should never permit any transformation or reform of the ideals and spirit it adopted at the time of its founding.

This is because the ideals and spirit comprehensively represent not only the party’s guiding ideology and fighting programme and good experience in its founding, but also the principles and ethos it has to adhere to throughout the course of its building.

The true value of a party’s original ideals and spirit lies not simply in that they served as a powerful engine leading the cause it adopted at its inception, but also in that they offer a sure guarantee for its greater leadership ability and brighter future with an inexhaustible viability even after its founding.

Mindful of the noble sense of responsibility and mission it assumed for the destiny of the country and the people, our Party has been consistent in holding fast to and carrying forward its original ideals and spirit even in the face of manifold, unprecedented and complicated trials. This has enabled it to write its long ruling history as the one of steadfast development and laudable guidance, the great one of devoted service for the people.

No other party in the world is longer-standing and better-prepared than ours in terms of ruling years, leadership authority, ideology, theory, work methods and discipline.

The absolute dignity and greatness unique to our Party precisely represents the ennobling and great qualities of its original ideals and spirit; the inexhaustible viability of our Party comes precisely from that of its original ideals and spirit.

Our Republic has made great leaps forward while pressing on against unheard-of difficulties and developed into a matchless power which no other forces dare defy. Witnessing its sacred and dignified image, our people are realizing anew the value of the great ideals and spirit.

When the banner a party raised at its inception is great and when its succession is great, the party’s past, present and future will all be adorned with victory and glory–this is a truth etched in the history of the WPK spanning nearly 80 years.

This great iron truth verified by history will remain valid for all eternity.

We should maintain the purity of our Party’s original ideals and spirit that determine its revolutionary character and mode of existence and apply them to its building and activities to the letter. This is the way to ensure its eternal development as a dignified and powerful party through all ages.

Those who should stand in the vanguard of our Party that is winning victory after victory on the strength of its great original ideals and spirit are officials most faithful to it.

Despite the change of generations along with the advance of the revolution, our officials, the backbone of our Party, should be communist revolutionaries who are thoroughly equipped with its original ideals and spirit. By doing so we can implement the five-point line of Party building in the new era and thus improve the profile and militant efficiency of our Party in every way possible.

Proceeding from this, our Party, at the historic watershed of its development, put up the slogan Let Us Open a Great Golden Age of Party Building in the New Era by Carrying Forward Its Original Ideals and Spirit! and set it as the primary revolutionary task of officials to carry forward on a higher level the ideals, faith, spirit and temperament cherished by the first-generation revolutionaries in accomplishing the cause of Party founding.

The original ideals and spirit of the Party should be adopted by Juche-type communist revolutionaries as the essence of their ideological and mental qualities.

Loyalty to the leader, devotion to the revolutionary cause, the spirit of serving the people, high-level class consciousness, socialist patriotism and ennobling moral traits–these constitute the major ideological and spiritual qualities of a communist revolutionary of a Juche type, the perfect incarnations of which were the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters.

When they had no government to provide a rear, these fighters pioneered the revolution barehanded and waged it while eating and sleeping in the blizzard-swept wilderness. In doing so, they trusted the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and nobody else, and their 20-year-long, immortal chronicles of resistance and the sacred history of Party founding were written with their beautiful ideals of socialism and communism, steadfast faith in the revolution and indomitable fighting spirit.

Having performed imperishable exploits for Party founding and the sacred cause of building the country and its armed forces, the revolutionary forerunners remained honest and resolute all their lives and worked with devotion for the prosperity of the country and the wellbeing of their fellow people.

Many years have passed, but the noble soul cherished by these first-generation revolutionaries has served as an inexhaustible source of sustenance to bring up the people of the later generations into true fighters and communists.

To embody and apply the Party’s original ideals and spirit to the letter poses itself today as a most pressing, crucial task facing our officials as leading personnel of the revolution.

Our Party is making sustained efforts to build up the country’s defence capability to cope with the allied imperialist forces’ moves for aggression and war, and at the same time is conducting gigantic projects for the comprehensive development of socialism.

The tasks facing us are challenging, yet we are short of qualified officials who are equal to such tasks.

The first-generation revolutionaries who created the Party’s original ideals and spirit passed away, and the faithful, veteran officials of the second generation who had been trained under their direct concern and influence, are passing away one after another. In order to ensure that the officials of the new generation fill the forerunners’ positions and roles with credit, we should make constant efforts to transform cadres along revolutionary lines and adopt radical measures to improve their training.

This is the very reason why the Party Central Committee puts the main emphasis on improving personnel administration, underlining the need for our cadres to live and work like the forerunners who blazed a trail for the cause of Party founding. These years, while giving top priority to the work of the Central Cadres Training School of the WPK, it has invested a huge sum in developing it into a political school without parallel in the world, the best “pedigree farm” for training Party cadres.

The ruling history of our Party spans nearly eight decades, and its policy of making officials revolutionary and working-class dates back far more than half a century. Never before have we brought the Party’s original ideals and spirit to the fore as the banner for transforming cadres along revolutionary lines.

Only when we equip our cadres with the far-reaching ideals, steadfast revolutionary faith and indomitable spirit that have been etched in the great history of Party founding, can we successfully attain the goal of transforming our Party’s cadres along revolutionary lines and bring about a great turn in building up the Party.

The Party’s original ideals should be a purpose of life and work for our cadres and part of their creed, and the Party’s original spirit and ethos should definitely dominate their thinking and action. Only then will the ranks of our Party’s cadres become steel-strong with genuine communist revolutionaries, adding inexhaustible dynamism to our cause of building up the Party to make a steady advance along the road of victory.

All our officials should work hard to temper themselves in the flames of transforming cadres along revolutionary lines, fully conscious of the urgent practical requirements and the important mission they have assumed for the times–writing a new, great chapter of history of the WPK by carrying forward its original ideals and spirit.

That officials possess the Party’s original ideals and spirit as their mental qualities means that they cherish the first-generation revolutionaries’ boundless loyalty to the Party and the revolution and their spirit of devoted service to the people, as their essential temperament and principle of life, always thinking and acting accordingly.

Loyalty to the Party, the revolution and the people, as was displayed by this generation, is the three-point essential temperament to be possessed of by our officials who are the leading personnel of the revolution and the hard core of our Party.

Officials should have a high degree of loyalty to the Party and fulfil their responsibility and duty as its core members in supporting its ideology and leadership.

They should take the lead, first and foremost, in defending our Party’s dignity and authority in every possible way.

Our Party’s dignity represents our state’s prestige, and it is a source of the greatest pride and honour for our people.

Our forerunners of the preceding generations, despite the difficulty and complexity of their struggle, were unconditional in safeguarding the Party’s dignity and authority and defending the revolution. We must never allow their ennobling spirit and merited contributions to remain merely as memories of the past.

In the struggle of the present times, too, our officials should regard it as the starting point and fundamental principle of their thinking and activities to thoroughly defend the prestige of the Party.

They should make it their habit to always try to identify any shortcomings in ensuring the absolute authority of the Party in all processes and on all occasions of their work and life and take steps to prevent any minor defects.

They should consider all affairs carefully and organize and carry them out scrupulously while giving top priority to ensuring the authority of the Party rather than attempting to achieve immediately visible successes.

Their loyalty to the Party is manifested intensively in implementing its lines, policies and decisions to the letter.

The environment and conditions in the early days after the Party was founded were worse than those of today and the cadres’ academic attainments or career were not conspicuous, but their viewpoint of and attitude to the Party’s lines and policies and their political awareness and sensibility were on a remarkably high level, which our officials should attain today.

Officials should learn from the spiritual world of the first-generation revolutionaries, and become staunch fighters who are perfect in implementing the Party’s policies even in the face of manifold trials and difficulties.

At present some officials, unaware of the quintessence of our Party’s policies, are working subjectively and merely to satisfy their own taste and, claiming that they are implementing the Party’s policies, they are vulgarizing these policies and even distorting their execution, deviated from Party principle. These are serious mistakes.

Whatever they do, officials should have a clear understanding of the Party’s intention, and, on its basis, consistently maintain the methodology of planning their work and finding solutions to the problems; and they should direct the greatest efforts to carrying out the Party’s decisions perfectly without any slightest compromise or deviation.

They should fully display their Party spirit in the struggle for strengthening the politico-ideological unity of the Party and the single-hearted unity of the revolutionary ranks.

We should never rest on our laurels or relax as the unity and cohesion of the Party and the revolutionary ranks have been firmly maintained up to now, nor forget even a moment that the enemy within and without are waiting for a chance to undermine the single-hearted unity and resorting to more desperate schemes.

With an awareness that they stand on the forefront of defending the unity and cohesion of the Party, officials should firmly preserve the politico-ideological purity of the revolutionary ranks by launching a principled, merciless struggle against those who have been deteriorated ideologically and degenerated in their class consciousness.

They should think and act thoroughly in line with the unified leadership system of the Party Central Committee, launch a struggle immediately against any trifling negative tendencies and elements such as idolizing individuals, regarding oneself as exceptional and working in a self-centred way and stamp them out resolutely.

I have already said that our officials should coordinate the public sentiments as carefully as running with an electric bulb on a glass tray. This means that it is quite a difficult task to manage the public sentiments and maintain unity, and great efforts should be directed to this task with constant care and attention.

Officials should thoroughly orient and subordinate all their work to strengthening the single-hearted unity between the Party and the masses and deal with the arising problems in accordance with Party and class principles after correctly distinguishing whether they are favourable or not to cementing the single-hearted unity.

Our officials should make devoted efforts with thoroughgoing revolutionary spirit.

Our Party set it as the development strategy of our own style to develop all sectors of socialist construction, all regions of the country and all fields of the national economy in a balanced, simultaneous way, and made such a challenging strategic decision as shouldering the task for a mid-term and long-term rural rejuvenation and regional development while carrying out the gigantic struggle tasks of the five-year plan set forth at its Eighth Congress.

It is a clear expression of our Party’s revolutionary stand to live up at any cost to the responsibility entrusted by the times and the revolution as well as to the people’s trust and expectation, and this requires all our officials to make unyielding and devoted efforts with renewed revolutionary conviction and fighting spirit.

As shown by the life of the many loyal persons who have stoutly supported the Party’s cause from the early days of its founding up to the present, a fighter who overcomes hardships by means of conviction and optimism and devotes his all to the sacred cause for the country and the people can be said to be a genuine revolutionary.

A man with no conviction and optimism can neither feel the worth of waging the revolution nor tide over the hardships, easily wavering in the face of difficulties and trials.

With clear insight into the present reality that convincingly shows the absolute superiority of the socialism of our own style and promises a bright future for the overall rejuvenation of our state, officials should brave all manner of challenges and trials in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude and carry out the decisions of the Party Congress and the plenary and political bureau meetings of the Party Central Committee.

It is most pressing for them to retain a strong sense of responsibility and display infinite devotion in implementing their official duties.

Loyalty to the revolution means a keen awareness of responsibility for one’s revolutionary duty and indomitable exertion.

The present era, in which the campaign for gigantic creation unprecedented in the history of our socialist construction is underway, demands hands-on officials who achieve remarkable results with a high sense of responsibility, bold drive, stubborn fighting spirit and persistent executive ability.

However, our officials have yet to rid themselves of such irresponsible and insincere tendencies as formalism, expediency, and self-protectionism, and this has proved to be a hindrance to our advance and development.

With a firm view and stand that they assume full responsibility for their work before the Party and the state, they should always rack their brains to find ways for better successes and more substantial results and work with devotion to achieve them.

If it is for the sake of the revolution, they should not argue about the limits of responsibility or consider benefits first with a self-centred approach, but instead take the lead in undertaking a task, however challenging it may be–this is the attitude of a genuine revolutionary, the attitude of a master.

Officials should do away with the indifferent and self-centred practice of staying aloof from any problems that are beyond the bounds of their responsibility, and adopt a proper stance and attitude of considering and approaching every problem in the interests of the Party and the state.

Our officials should become faithful servants of the people, who embody loyalty to them as one of their inherent qualities.

The quintessence of our Party’s original ideals and spirit is the people-first principle.

In the first days of our Party founding, the Korean communists inscribed in its sacred red flag their lofty ideals for building a new country whose masters are the people, as well as their faith and will to sacrifice themselves without hesitation for the sake of their fellow people.

The nearly eight decades of our Party’s struggle to defend the red flag symbolizing its original ideals and spirit, represent the history of its preserving its nature and original features as a genuine party of the people. And following this course, our Party has administered the great people-first politics that is unprecedented in the political history of ruling socialist parties.

The people-first principle is not an abstract slogan, but it is the political creed unique to our Party, which permeates all its lines and policies and whose viability our people have experienced through their everyday life.

Despite manifold difficulties facing the state, our Party initiated and is unfailingly carrying out gigantic projects of lasting significance to translate the people’s ideals and dreams into reality, and it also ensures that the more difficulties the people experience, the deeper the whole Party goes among the masses, sharing weal and woe with them. Such traits can never be displayed or imitated by other ruling socialist parties.

People-first principle–this represents our Party’s original features and its absolute ruling efficiency.

Our officials’ loyalty to the people should find its expression in wholeheartedly supporting the Party Central Committee’s people-first politics and faithfully serving the people.

They should, first of all, acquire a proper view of and attitude towards the people.

It is self-evident that an official with an improper view of the people can neither respect nor serve them.

Our Party has performed great and undying exploits, because since the initial days of its founding it has regarded it as its inherent mission to believe in the people as in heaven and serve them, and has made strenuous efforts to this end, thereby winning their absolute support and trust despite the passage of time and changes of generations.

When a party is alienated or divorced from the people, it would be futile to talk about or think of its lines and policies, struggle and achievements. Likewise, when officials are separated from the people, it would be pointless to speak about their worth.

Officials should never deviate from the view that the people do not exist for the sake of cadres, but the latter exists for the sake of the former, and from the stand and attitude of regarding the people as sacred beings and respecting them as their mentors at any time and under any circumstances.

At its historic Eighth Congress, our Party put special emphasis on holding higher the ideals of “The people are god” as well as single-hearted unity and self-reliance, and declared them to the whole world. Officials should cherish its real intention deep in their mind, be infinitely courteous and sincere to the people and remain faithful to the duty as their true servants.

Most recently, we have brought the residents in the flood-hit areas to the capital city and taken warm care of them with sincerity while giving education to their children, and decided to add the construction of advanced public health facilities, facilities for science, education and cultural activities, and grain management facilities to the Regional Development 20×10 Policy. All these are the revolutionary measures which clearly testify to our Party’s faith that the people are its god.

Our officials, whatever they do, should consider whether it would infringe upon the demands and interests of the people and whether it would cause any inconvenience to them, and should approach and deal with the arising problems from their standpoint and from the viewpoint of providing convenience to them and promoting their wellbeing.

They should cherish the boundless trust of the people, who call the Workers’ Party mother, as the greatest confidence in and expectations of them, regard it as their duty to find out and take charge of new things for them and make positive efforts to find solutions to the problems, eagerly awaited by them.

It is of particular importance to be prudent in words and deeds in acquiring the traits as befitting an official of the Party.

As always, officials’ moral traits are a serious political issue directly related with the prestige of the Party.

I stress once again: if officials make a slightest mistake in words or deeds before the people, they will lower the prestige of the Party and estrange the masses from it.

The revolutionary forerunners, who had laid firm foundations of the Party and secured its authority in the early days after its founding, performed feats in their work to be praised by all. However, there was no gap between them and their fellow people, and they built up the foundations for establishing a sound climate in the Party by dint of their unique people-oriented spirit and methods of working with them.

Officials should always be courteous with bright facial expression whenever they approach the masses, be they ten or one, and give sincere advice to those who made a mistake and lead them forward.

They should be infinitely humble in front of the masses and mix with them unceremoniously, and every of their words and deeds should overflow with the ennobling moral traits and warm human feelings of respecting and caring for them.

We should keep intensifying the struggle to root out the abuses of power, bureaucracy and accumulation of wealth by illicit means.

These negative practices are the main targets of struggle, which fundamentally run counter to our Party’s original ideals and spirit.

Officials should refrain from harbouring such ideas of demanding uncommon treatment while regarding themselves as exceptional beings and seeking only their own interests by abusing their power, but make it part of their habit to lead the same life with other people.

Times have changed a lot since the days of Party founding, but its mode of existence and activities–sharing weal and woe with the people and standing in the vanguard of their struggle–remains unchanged.

If any slightest manifestation is revealed among them of the abuses of power, bureaucracy and accumulation of wealth by illicit means, it will do harm to the Party and leave a blot on their political integrity. Bearing this in mind, they should control and temper themselves, working and living modestly, simply and frugally.

In addition, they should not spare comradely advice and help to other officials working with them so as to ensure that any trifling practice of the abuses of power, bureaucracy and corruption is not revealed among them. They should also make continuous efforts to awaken and educate their family members and relatives lest they commit any unsound practice.

In order to become communist revolutionaries who are possessed of the Party’s original ideals and spirit as their mental qualities, our officials should intensify their studies.

Studying is the primary process for them to acquire and steadily improve their Party, revolutionary and people-oriented spirit; it is also an important way for the revolutionary transformation of cadres.

Fully aware that studying hard is the essential requirement for their training in the Party spirit and their revolutionary self-improvement, officials should study voluntarily, diligently and substantially.

Primary attention should be paid to the studies aimed at arming themselves with the Party’s lines and policies.

Our Party’s revolutionary ideology is the ever-victorious banner leading the cause of Juche, providing absolutely correct guidelines for ushering in a golden age in building up the Party and achieving national prosperity in the new era.

Officials should regard it as a vital task to arm themselves with the Party’s ideology and policies, keeping in mind that, without a correct understanding of them, they can neither be faithful to the important responsibility and duties entrusted to them by the Party nor breathe the same air as, and keep step with, the advance of the times.

They should firmly equip themselves with our Party’s revolutionary ideology by conducting an in-depth study of its documents in a chronological order and in a systematic and comprehensive way, thereby making it an element of their firm faith.

In particular, they should intensify their study of the Party’s current policies, such as the new policy on regional development, until they correctly grasp the gist of those policies, and then identify what they need to do for their implementation and take practical steps to this end.

In arming themselves with our Party’s ideology and theories, they should put the particular emphasis on effectively studying its line of building up the Party in the new era.

Mindful of the Party Central Committee’s intention to usher in a new golden age of building up the Party by carrying forward its original ideals and spirit, they should study hard to grasp the essence, originality, viability and great vitality of the five-point line of building up the Party and make it an element of their faith, and find ways for applying it in practice.

They should also conduct an in-depth study of how our Party was founded and has been developed.

The new golden age of building up the Party should start with studying how our Party was founded and has been developed and learning from the ennobling spirit of our forerunners who made an undying contribution to pioneering and advancing the cause of building a Juche-oriented party–this is our Party’s requirement.

All the officials should be so effective in studying the history of our Party in various forms and by various methods that they can gain knowledge, which is as good as first-hand experience, of how the first-generation revolutionaries went against all odds to pioneer the great cause of Party building and carry it through with credit, and of how hard the second- and third-generation revolutionaries have worked by carrying forward their predecessors’ soul and spirit.

They should also be well aware of how dearly they paid for the creation of our Party’s history and tradition of unity and cohesion unprecedented in the history of the building of revolutionary parties, the ruling socialist parties in particular, and of how the fighters of the preceding generations defended the Party Central Committee and the revolution in times of grave trials.

In order to become communist revolutionaries embodying the Party’s original ideals and spirit, officials should cultivate and train themselves in a revolutionary way through Party life.

Party life is a school for revolutionary education and a furnace for revolutionary training, where officials can acquire and consolidate their loyalty to the Party, the revolution and the people.

Bearing in mind that whoever neglects Party life and fails to temper their loyalty to the Party will degenerate in spite of themselves and end up being traitors and renegades of the revolution, officials should enhance their loyalty to the Party and revolutionary temperament by taking a voluntary and sincere part in Party life.

Officials should participate in Party life faithfully with a high appreciation of Party organization, just as rank-and-file Party members do–this is an obligation stipulated in the Party Rules and a course of their cultivating revolutionary traits.

The anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters made efforts to enhance their loyalty to the Party by reviewing their Party life by themselves even in the throes of successive battles and marches; learning from their ennobling examples, officials should respect the Party organization and take a fully responsible attitude and approach towards its decisions.

By taking a voluntary and sincere part in Party meetings, reviews of Party life and Party study sessions, they should establish a regularized climate of obeying Party discipline and working and living accordingly, and get into the habit of making conscious efforts to place themselves under the Party organization’s guidance and control.

They should train themselves ideologically and enhance their Party awareness through intensive criticism and ideological campaign.

Self-reflection and principled, comradely criticism are the most efficacious of political “tonics,” which help our officials work harder with a strong sense of their basic duty as Party members and revolutionaries, and ideological campaign is a fundamental method for transforming cadres along revolutionary lines.

Officials should review their Party life conscientiously now and then according to the Party Rules and regulations, and they should be frank with the Party organization about their mistakes and be bold in correcting them.

When others make a mistake, they should give them principled criticism based on the Party’s ideology, policies and discipline and, not confining themselves to doing so, help them with all sincerity so that they can rectify their mistake.

Success or failure in preparing officials to be genuine communist revolutionaries embodying the Party’s original ideals and spirit depends largely on the role of Party organizations.

Officials’ self-consciousness alone is not enough to enhance their loyalty to the Party, the revolution and the people.

If we connive at, and take a hands-off approach towards, any signs of unorganized, undisciplined or negative practice that may be revealed among officials, we cannot maintain the Party’s original ideals and spirit. This will end up failing to provide a sure guarantee for the future of the Party and the revolution.

Party organizations at all levels, fully aware that transforming cadres along revolutionary lines is a crucial matter that has a direct bearing on the destiny of the Party and the successful accomplishment of the socialist cause, should strengthen the education and control of officials and establish strict discipline within the Party.

They should make exacting demands on officials to be fully conversant with the Party’s regulations and order and strictly observe them in and out of work; they should also exercise tight control and guidance so that the officials draw up detailed action plans, work according to them and exert themselves in implementing their assignments to produce substantial results.

They should be effective in educating and controlling officials lest they act contrary to the Party’s principles and discipline in the course of directing the lower-echelon units or in their daily activities; once they reveal any negative practice, they must never connive at it, instead making an issue of it and helping them rectify it.

By taking into account the requirements of the developing revolution and the preparedness of officials, they should work out detailed methodology to transform them along revolutionary lines and make persevering efforts to this end, correcting deviations in time, if any, and steadily intensifying this work.

Next year is very significant in that our glorious Party will greet its 80th founding anniversary and its Central Committee will wind up its eighth term.

From now on, we should make good preparations for celebrating this anniversary of our Party as a grand political festival that will proudly review its longest history as a ruling socialist party and mark a watershed in opening up a new, great era of building up the Party and the country.

In addition, we should successfully carry out the policy-oriented tasks put forward by the Eighth Party Congress.

All the officials should embody the Party’s original ideals and spirit, and they should remain faithful to their responsibility and duty as the leading personnel of the revolution in the ongoing drive to open up a golden age for strengthening the whole party and achieving national prosperity.

Filled with greater conviction and mounting morale, we are advancing more vigorously and confidently to bring earlier the victory of socialist and communist construction by carrying forward the invaluable and sacred ideals and spirit.

The intention in pioneering the cause of the Workers’ Party of Korea was a truth, and its victory is a truth as well.

The great soul of our forerunners is encouraging us.

Let us all endeavour to keep up the revolutionary upsurge in the new era by making redoubled efforts to achieve proud results with a strong sense of honour and responsibility as befitting the hard core of the great Party and the leading personnel of the revolution.

2024-10-11