The Central Committee’s Propaganda and Agitation Department is calling on organizations to properly carry out political activities aimed at putting “Kim Jong Il’s patriotism” into practice. The General Political Bureau of the North Korean military has responded by issuing an order to propaganda departments across the entire military calling for workshops on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s 2012 address on “Kim Jong Il’s patriotism.”
A Daily NK source in the North Korean military said Friday that the General Political Bureau order called for a month of workshops on Kim Jong Un’s nojak starting from July 16, ostensibly to mark the 10th anniversary of a July 28, 2012 statement by Kim to leading Central Committee officials entitled “Let Us Step Up the Building of a Thriving Country by Applying Kim Jong Il’s Patriotism.”
Nojak refers to books that describe the revolutionary socialist theories or statements of Kim Jong Un, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
North Korea publishes the books, statements, speeches and meeting decisions of its supreme leader as nojak or party documents, and makes its citizens study them.
Following the Propaganda and Agitation Department’s order, the Workers’ Party of Korea Publishing House re-published Kim’s 2012 statement in book form. Earlier this month, it distributed the work in booklet form to the General Political Bureau, which disseminated them to propaganda departments across the military.
Following the distribution of the republished book and a set of political lecture materials published by the General Political Bureau’s publishing house on Kim Jong Un’s work, military personnel have been intensively studying them.
According to the source, units across the military are holding workshops on Kim’s nojak on “Kim Jong Il patriotism” during the political lecture hour of their summertime exercises, focusing on the basic ideology of Kim Jong Il patriotism, the importance of realizing Kim Jong Il patriotism, tasks and methods.
Through the workshops, the military is trying to instill in its personnel ideas such as, “You must etch upon your hearts the truth that the highest expression of patriotism is found in defending the motherland, and a life dedicated to national defence is the most valuable, patriotic life.” The military is also telling soldiers that, “Completing preparations for war is the major task to realize Kim Jong Il patriotism, and this is patriotism itself.”
The source said, “The General Political Bureau called for intensive ideological education on how completing preparations for war by realizing Kim Jong Il patriotism in their duties was the very realization of Kim Jong Il patriotism and patriotism itself.”
The source also told Daily NK that the military’s propaganda departments are telling units to instill “Kim Jong Il’s profound outlook for the future generations” into young soldiers, widely calling on young soldiers to “live as Kim Jong Il’s fighters, as his disciples.”
The General Political Bureau also ordered military propaganda departments and youth departments to take charge of arranging singing sessions for the song “Ode to the Fatherland” by the end of the month. Preparations for the sessions are underway, the source said.
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