North Korea will hold a conference to mark the 50th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s declaration of the doctrine of “society-wide adoption of Kimilsungism.” Officials throughout the country have been ordered to ensure that everyone watches the televised broadcast of the conference.
Kim Jong Il, then heir to Kim Il Sung, called for the adoption of Kimilsungism by the whole of North Korean society on Feb. 19, 1974.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Thursday that the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) has announced that it will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s declaration by holding a central conference on Feb. 19.
For the 40th anniversary of the declaration in 2014, North Korea held a central conference at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on Feb. 18, a day before the actual anniversary.
“The Central Committee had the propaganda departments of party committees at all levels issue instructions about the event before the Lunar New Year, and they repeated those instructions after the Lunar New Year. This shows how important they consider this event to be,” the source said.
As part of their instructions for the entire population to watch the conference, the North Korean authorities have ordered the power transmission and distribution departments in each province to make thorough preparations to provide electricity to people with limited mobility so that they can watch the conference at home.
Typically, people gather in their neighborhood office or workplace auditorium to watch the broadcast of the conferences. However, the government has ordered that measures be taken to enable people with limited mobility to watch the broadcast without leaving their homes.
However, each person with limited mobility will be paired with a party member or other trusted person to ensure that they watch the broadcast of the conference when the electricity is turned on, instead of watching a foreign movie or doing something else “inappropriate.”
The WPK Central Committee also instructed organizations to take turns organizing competitions for mastering the “Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System” and to report on their progress by March.
Furthermore, the committee ordered the groups to organize research lectures on “Several Challenges Facing the Party’s Ideological Projects for the Society-Wide Adoption of Kimilsungism” (a text separately published by Kim Jong Il in 1974) and hold contests for memorizing the whole text and answering questions on it.
Government concern over ideological laxity among young people
The Central Committee also ordered the Socialist Patriotic Youth League to step up its ideological and indoctrination programs.
“The Central Committee has given orders to create an atmosphere of ideological struggle and to strengthen self-criticism and mutual criticism because many non-socialist and anti-socialist behaviors have recently been observed among members of the Youth League,” the source said. “Such behaviors run counter to the party’s ideology and its intention to train young people to be core elements loyal to the party.”
The source reported that the Central Committee stressed the need to launch a strong ideological campaign to counter young people’s recent tendency toward individualism, their attempts to escape state control, and their blatant interest in foreign movies, music, and news.
Moreover, the committee ordered the youth league to create the atmosphere for a collective discussion aimed at transforming the organization into a party-loyal one based on the doctrine of the society-wide adoption of Kimilsungism and to adopt a report and a written decision to that effect, the source added.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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