「以民為天」的生平

「以民為天」的生平
Life's Tenet

金正日將軍與胡錦濤主席合照
General Kim Jong Il together with President Hu Jintao

社會主義朝鮮的始祖金日成主席(1912-1944)的一生，可以說是「以民為天」的一生。金日成一生一世竭盡心血，把人民群眾的地位和作用提到了最高境界，把朝鮮人民造就成了自主精神很強的人民。

主席把「以民為天」作為畢生的座右銘， 為了從日本軍事強佔(1905-1945)下解放國家和人民而展開革命活動的初期，深入人民群眾，在同他們同甘苦共患難的過程中，創立了革命和建設的主人是人民群眾，推動革命和建設的力量也在於人民群眾這一主體思想。由於主席在人類歷史上首創以人為中心、以人民群眾為中心的主體思想，從而開闢了從奴役和束縛的舊思潮中實現人民群眾思想精神解放的道路。朝鮮人民得以人人都以自主精神堅決反對事大主義和教條主義，一向以自己的精神，自己的方式進行生活。

正如國際社會所目睹的那樣，今天朝鮮人民以超強硬對付自詡為世界「唯一超級大國」的美國為首的帝國主義「實力」政策、強硬政策，向全世界顯示社會主義朝鮮作為攻不破摧不毀的自主要塞的威儀。

金日成始終相信人民，依靠人民，領導革命和建設走向了勝利。他制定一條路線和一項政策，也充分反映了人民群眾的志向和要求；建設一座工廠和一座城市，也很好地保障了人民群眾的利益和便利。從日本軍事強佔下解放(1945.8)後，在北朝鮮頒佈的歷史土改法令，也反映了農民對土地的歷史宿願；朝鮮戰爭(1950-1953)停戰後全國各地農村實行的在技術改造之前對經濟形式進行社會主義改造的獨創性社會主義農業合作化方針，也是他按照人民群眾的志向和要求提出的。由於有主席「以民為天」的思想，朝鮮的國號和軍隊名稱也都冠上了人民一詞。比如首都平壤最雄偉壯麗的建築物人民大學習堂、人民文化宮等。

依靠人民群眾的力量克服難關，是金日成一貫的原則。他在擊退以美國為首的帝國主義聯合勢力侵略的朝鮮戰爭時期，國家的一切都遭到破壞的情況下，從某機械廠一位女勞動黨員說請您不要為戰後恢復建設而操心這一充滿信念的話音中展望了戰爭勝利；在國內外形勢空前複雜尖銳的戰後時期，也從一位農村老大娘說我們只支持首相(當時金日成為首相)您這一樸素的一句話語中得到力量和勇氣，打開了困難局面。由於有了一向相信人民、依靠人民力量的他的領導，朝鮮人民在戰後廢墟上卓有成效地進行了恢復建設和社會主義革命，在社會主義建設中取得了世紀性勝利和成就，把自己的祖國建設成為自主、自衛、自立的社會主義強國。

金日成的一生是以愛民和獻身點綴的。主席認為，革命是本質上開放愛民之花。他之所以十幾歲走上革命道路，領導十五年艱苦的抗日武裝鬥爭，是因為他比任何人都更為受難受苦的民族的命運疼心，有從殖民地奴隸的命運中解放祖國和人民的火熱願望。解放初一噸鋼材也很珍貴的時候，他比什麼都珍視工人的生命和健康，下指示炸掉了原鐵爐。

主席對人民的愛心凝聚在朝鮮所到之處。朝鮮各地都有主席的事跡，容易見到直接受主席恩情的人和同主席合影留念的照片。金日成在國家解放至生平的最後時期，對2.06萬多個單位進行了現場指導，其路程總達57.8萬多公里。其中也有該受人民祝福的生辰、節日和星期日。

朝鮮人民擁戴金日成為民族的慈父、永恆的領袖，並不是偶然的。

資料由朝鮮民主主義人民共和國駐香港總領事館提供

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All his life President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founder of socialist Korea, kept the tenet “The People are my God” faithfully.

He worked heart and soul to enhance the position and role of the popular masses to the highest ever level and make the Korean people a nation with a strong independent spirit.

Setting “The people are my God” as his life's tenet in the early days of his revolutionary struggle to liberate Korea from Japan's military occupation (1905-1945), he found his way into the people and shared the sweet and bitter with them. In the course of this he founded the Juche idea that the master of revolution and construction is the popular masses and that the propeller of revolution and construction is also the masses. The creation of the Juche idea that is centred on man, or the masses of the people, for the first time in history, provided a new way to free the people from the old ideological and moral fetters of subordination and subjugation. In particular, the Korean people now got able to avoid flunkeyist and dogmatist tendencies securely in an independent spirit and live their life intentionally in their own way.

As is evident to the international community, they are now successfully coping with the hard-line “policy of power” of the imperialist forces headed by the United States that styles itself the world's “only superpower”. Korea's harder line serves as the means to enlarge the stature of its being a socialist nation which is a mighty bulwark of independence.

Kim Il Sung believed in and relied on the people all his life, thus successfully leading the revolution and construction.

He made sure that every line or policy was decided to champion the aspirations and desires of the popular masses and that every factory or town was built in such a way that their interest and convenient living were fully provided for. The historic law on agrarian reform enforced in north Korea after the country was liberated from Japan's military occupation in August 1945, was initiated by the President who well understood the centuries-old desire of the peasants for land of their own. He was also well informed of the people's aspirations and desires when he advanced the original policy of socialist agricultural cooperativization after the Korean war (1950-1953). (The policy was to transform the economic form into a socialist one prior to technical reshaping, and it was carried into reality in all the rural communities.) Thanks to his belief in the people as in God, both the national state and the armed forces were named after the “people”. The word was also incorporated in the names of the landmark structures, like the Grand People's Study House and the People's Palace of Culture.

To tide over a difficult situation by relying on the people was a consistent principle the President kept. During the Korean war when Korea fought against the invasion of the imperialist allied forces led by the US, he felt reassured of Korea's victory when he was told by a Workers' Party of Korea member, who was a worker at a machine factory, not to worry about the reconstruction project even though the whole land was a war debris. In the post-war time when the situations at home and abroad were unprecedentedly complicated and serious, the President found great encouragement from an old country woman's simple statement that they supported him alone. As there was his guidance that was based on the belief in and reliance on the people, the Koreans fulfilled the tasks of postwar rehabilitation and socialist revolution despite of the total destruction in the war, and accomplished miraculous feats in socialist construction, thereby establishing a socialist power, independent in politics, self-reliant in defence and self-sufficient in the economy.

Kim Il Sung's lifetime was a continuance of great devotion to the people's welfare. He thought that the revolution, in essence, is an undertaking to take good care of the people. He set out on the road of revolution in his early teens and led the arduous anti-Japanese armed struggle for 15 years because he was more anxious than anybody else about the fate of his suffering nation and was more afire with the resolution to free his compatriots from the wretched plight of colonial slavery.

A notable fact goes that soon after the country was liberated he ordered to blow off an old steel oven as he was more interested in the workers' lives and health than steel production when even a ton of steel counted.

His affection for the people is to be felt wherever you go in Korea. Anywhere anytime you can find monuments to his personal (and field) guidance, meet people who benefited from his loving care, and see photos of him among ordinary people.

He paid on-the-spot guidance visits to more than 20,600 places from the national liberation till the end of his life, and the total distance of his travel for local guidance amounts to as many as 578,000 km. Even on his birthdays, national holidays and Sundays, he found himself touring different places of the country.

So, it is far from fortuitous that the Korean people hold him in respect as their father and eternal leader.

Source: Consulate General of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in Hong Kong