For the Development of the Non-Aligned Movement

On September 1 this year the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) greets the 50th anniversary of it's founding.

The history of half a century of NAM, which was founded with the aspiration for an independent and peaceful world in opposition to aggressive military blocs of every description, is associated with the achievement Kim Il Sung made for its development.

Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), the founding father and eternal President of socialist Korea, defined NAM's mission to be to oppose all forms of domination, subjugation, aggression and intervention, defend global peace and security and achieve countries' independence and their free socio-economic development, and worked energetically to develop the movement and realize unity, solidarity and cooperation among its member states.

In many of his works, including The Non-Aligned Movement is a Mighty Anti-imperialist Revolutionary Force of Our Times, a treatise published on December 16, 1975 in the inaugural issue of the Argentine magazine Guidebook to the Third World, and For the Development of the Non-Aligned Movement, concluding speech delivered on June 20, 1986 at a combined meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Central People's Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, he gave comprehensive answers to the theoretical and practical problems arising in developing NAM, that the member states should counter with the strategy of unity the imperialists' schemes to sow discord among them, that they should adhere within the movement to the principle of noninterference in one another's internal affairs, that they should settle the differences in opinions and disputes by the method of negotiation, and others, and led his country to fulfil its mission and role as a member state of NAM.

During the Sixth Summit of Non-Aligned Countries held in 1979, a serious problem that might lead to the break-up of the movement cropped up, and many people were watching the conference with apprehension. Kim Il Sung dispatched a delegation of the DPRK to the conference, and ensured that it made positive activities to prevent the break-up of the movement and led it to advance in line with its original mission and target.

The complicated international situation between the late 1980s and the early 1990s had an impact not only on the socialist movement but on NAM as well.

Availing themselves of the break-up of the Cold War structure and equilibrium of forces in the international arena, imperialists manoeuvred to hamstring the fundamental ideal and character of this movement, which had fought so far for independence against imperialism, peace against war, independence and progress. NAM was faced with a vital issue, whether it would adhere to its original mission and character and continue to advance or collapse.

At the end of August 1992 the editor-in-chief of the Indonesian newspaper Media Indonesia submitted to him a questionnaire, asking him to give answers to the questions related with the orientation of the development of NAM. The Tenth Summit of Non-Aligned Countries to be held in Jakarta was in the offing to discuss important issues, like making a correct analysis of the prevailing situation and establishing a unified view of several problems concerning the path NAM should take, but still then the member states had failed to reach a consensus of opinion on a series of issues or express their unequivocal stand.

Kim Il Sung replied: The termination of the Cold War never means that NAM forfeited its position and role. So long as the imperialist forces exist and the ideal of NAM is yet to be realized, NAM should continue to exist and develop further. The aspiration of the world people to build a free and peaceful new world remains unchanged, and aspiration toward independence and peace is the major trend of history that no force can check. NAM whose life is independence should invariably adhere to the fundamental ideal and principle of independence. He then clarified the orientation of activities for developing NAM continuously.

His reply was soon carried in other Indonesian newspapers, and it became the spirit of the Tenth Summit of Non-Aligned Countries. The summit dealt a blow at the imperialists who had been trying to disintegrate the movement, and served as an important occasion for NAM, which aspires after independence, to maintain its original mission and role.

Kim Il Sung also paid deep attention to information services of NAM.

In June 1993 the Fourth Conference of Ministers of Information of Non-Aligned Countries was held in Pyongyang.

Kim Il Sung ensured that the conference became an important international gathering that would contribute to the common cause of mankind to build an independent, new world.

He met the heads of delegations and delegates from many countries of the world, and expressed his opinion on further developing NAM. And in the speech, titled, Non-Aligned Information Services Must contribute to the People 's Cause of Independence, he delivered at the conference, he stressed that as long as there exists on the globe a force that seeks domination and intervention, aggression and plunder, NAM must be continuously developed and further expanded as the leading force in the building of an independent, new world.

Thanks to the energetic activities of Kim Il Sung, NAM could firmly maintain its noble ideal and principle even in the maelstrom of history, and forcefully propel the era of independence.

The exploits Kim Il Sung achieved for the development of NAM and accomplishment of the cause of global independence is being exalted now by Kim Jong Il, the present supreme leader of the DPRK.

NAM has today become a mighty anti-imperialist, independent force of the present era embracing 118 countries.

A former Indonesian foreign minister, who watched with keen interest the course of the development of NAM, once said, "The DPRK is playing an independent role in the international arena, and especially it has taken a definite initiative in NAM. When the organism, called NAM, was infected with the political fever of 'liberalization' and 'multi-party system' after the end of the Cold War it was the DPRK that gave injection to it in time to save it from becoming extinct; when it was KO'd in the ring by the West, it was again the DPRK that made it regain consciousness and rise up. That the DPRK could save the movement and lead it on its own initiative is attributable entirely to the exploits of President Kim Il Sung and the leadership of H. E. Kim Jong Il.

Related Topics: Special Supplement receive the latest by email: subscribe to weekly blitz's free mailing list