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In February this year, Korean people warmly celebrate the 77^th  Birthday of  H.E, Kim Jong Il, Eternal General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the eternal leader of socialist Korea.

Kim Jong Il was born on February 16, 1942, at a secret camp on Mt Paektu as the son of Kim Il Sung, the eternal President of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea when the armed struggle was being waged by the Korean revolutionaries under the leadership of Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) to liberate their country from the military occupation by Japan. The secret camp was a major base of the armed struggle.

At that time the guerillas barked the trees in the forests and inscribed on them such slogans as Heir to General Kim Il Sung was born on Mt Paektu; O Korea and compatriots, we inform you of the birth of the Shining Star of Paektu; and The birth of the Shining Star of Paektu is the honour of Korea.

True to expectation and desire of all revolutionaries, Kim Jong Il became the shining star adding glory to Korea and regarded as his lifelong mission to carry forward President Kim Il Sung’s cause.

Kim Jong Il assisted Kim Il Sung in his work from his early years. After the graduation of the Kim Il Sung University, Kim Jong Il assisted President Kim Il Sung while dealing with the overall work of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the state and the armed forces, thus performed exploits noteworthy in history.

Through energetic ideological and theoretical activities, Kim Jong Il ensured that the Juche idea (man is the master of everything and decides everything) and Songunidea (army-first idea) authored by President Kim Il Sung shone as the eternal guiding ideology of Korea and a great ideology guiding the era of independence.

He also developed the Workers’ Party of Korea into an ever-victorious guiding force, the DPRK into an invincible socialist state and the Korean People’s Army into a matchless revolutionary army.

In the closing years of the previous century, when the country was experiencing the worst trials owing to the extreme moves of the US-led imperialist allied forces to stifle the DPRK, Kim Jong Il firmly defended socialism by dint of his unique Songun politics (army-first politics), turned the whole society into a grand, harmonious family with his policy of loving and trusting people and further strengthened the whole country into a politico-ideological power in which all the people are united with a single heart.

He also unfolded an ambitious blueprint for building a powerful socialist country, and laid firm foundations to this end.

The DPRK achieves victories one after another and its eternal prosperity is inconceivable separated from his career.

The Korean people celebrates February 16 as the Day of the Shining Star, as the greatest national holiday.

On February 14, 2012, Kim Jong Il was awarded the title of Generalissimo of the DPRK.

From his childhood, he was possessed of the view of prioritizing arms and was keenly interested in military affairs. On August 25, 1960, in the lead-up to his entering KimIlSungUniversity, he visited the Seoul RyuKyong Su Guards 105^th Tank Division of the KPA. This signaled the start of his Songun-based leadership, which reflected his will to safeguard the destiny of the country and nation and accomplish the socialist cause with the army as the main force.

Since then, holding fast to the work of the army as well as of the Party as the main thing, he paid primary attention to preparing the army politically and ideologically and at the same time strengthened its military and technological might comprehensively. He made energetic efforts to develop the defence industry so that the KPA could be perfectly equipped with modern and powerful means of attack and defence.

He devoted his all to making the climate of prioritizing military affairs prevail across society and accomplishing the tasks of arming all the people and fortifying the whole country in a more thoroughgoing way. This turned the whole country into an impregnable fortress.

What is particularly noteworthy in his Songun-based leadership spanning more than 50 years is that he led to victory the US-DPRK nuclear stand-off that was as fierce as a world war.

Hinged on this showdown was the destiny of socialist Korea and the world socialist movement after the end of the Cold War, and the peace and security of the DPRK, Northeast Asia and the rest of the world; it was a “war without gunshot.”

During the first nuclear crisis in early 1993, when the United States instigated the IAEA to enforce on the DPRK a “special inspection” claiming about its “suspicious nuclear development,” and during the second nuclear crisis at the turn of the new century, when the Bush administration, branding the DPRK as part of the Axis of Evil, put it on the list of targets for preemptive nuclear strike, Kim Jong Il exerted all his efforts to increasing the national military strength so as to reliably safeguard the sovereignty of the country and stability in the region.

The reckless nuclear blackmail by the US resulted in the DPRK possessing a powerful nuclear deterrent. The days are gone for ever when the US threatened the DPRK with nuclear weapon.

A century ago, Korea was forced to suffer the bitter lot of slavery as it had no proper weapon. However, today it is demonstrating far and wide the might of a world-class military power which is possessed of nuclear deterrent. This constitutes the greatest exploit he performed.

On December 17, 2011, Kim Jong Il passed away, and the title of Generalissimo of the DPRK was conferred on him on February 14, 2012 for his immortal exploits of turning his country into a world-class military power and leading to victory the anti-imperialist, anti-US showdown by dint of his Songun-based leadership, unique in the political history of the world.

The greatest of the exploits performed by Kim Jong Il for the cause of global independence is that, by administering the unique Songun politics, he made a breakthrough in the US-led imperialists’ attempt to establish a unipolar world and maintain the outdated international political landscape centred on powers, and firmly defended the peace and security on the Korean peninsula, northeast Asia and the rest of the world.

Proceeding from the iron truth that one can defend the independence and dignity of one’s country and nation and the durable peace and security of the world only by dint of self-defensive arms, the invincible military might, in the present era when the sovereignty of several countries and justice of the world are being ruthlessly trampled upon by the outrageous high-handedness and arbitrariness of the imperialists based on military strength, Kim Jong Il enforced the Songun politics (army-first politics) unprecedented in the history of world politics.

The Songun politics raised the overall defence capabilities of the DPRK, including that of the Korean People’s Army, onto the level of world powers, and made a breakthrough in the international order of the US-led imperialist powers, whereby the law of jungle prevails. His steadfast Songun line, Songun leadership, turned the DPRK into an impregnable fortress, an invincible military power, possessed even with powerful nuclear deterrent and, by dint of Songun, it resolutely crushed the extreme military threats and provocations by the US.

If the DPRK was weak in terms of military power, the Korean peninsula would be unable to avoid the holocaust of war that befell Iraq and Afghanistan. Military commentators predicted that a war in the Korean peninsula would entail four major catastrophes-economic loss of USD 20 trillion, destruction of over 500 metropolises, death of over one billion persons and global desertification.

Had the DPRK not been turned into a country with a great military capability and had the US unleashed a war on the Korean peninsula, the three gigantic transformations-material prosperity, technological leap and spiritual civilization-which many countries have achieved over half a century at the highest level in their thousands of years of history would have been unthinkable on this planet.

Indeed, Kim Jong Il was a great saint who, by victoriously leading the DPRK-US showdown, secured peace for billions of people.

As Vishwanath, a prominent social figure in India, wrote, Kim Jong Il was a heaven-sent man for the good of mankind; such a great man is born once in ten centuries.