Kim Jong Il’s View of Music - Nordkorea-Information

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Kim Jong Il’s View of Music

One day Chairman Kim Jong Il said, “I have always taken advantage of music to solve problems in the revolution and construction including acute affairs of military operations, feel great pleasures and banish great sorrow. Music is my first love, eternal companion and a powerful weapon of the revolution and construction. This is my view of music.”



Regarding music as his life’s companion and comrade, Kim Jong Il created an original mode of government called “music-based politics,” in the course of his leadership of the Korean Party, State and army. He saw music, which the exploiting class thought was only a means of entertainment and enjoyment and a simple kind of the art, as a powerful weapon to fulfil the desire and demand of the popular masses for independence. From this point of view he stimulated the people by the politics of music and advanced the era.

He had long made the most of music using it as a means of government. A typical example came in the 1970s when the so-called “Panmunjom Incident” broke out at the manipulation of the US imperialists. When the gray cloud of war was scudding through the sky of the country, Kim Jong Il resolutely appealed to cope with the situation by means of songs. Thus, the Korean Central Radio aired the strong melodies of We’ll Take a Firmer Grip of the Gun, Leader, Just Give Us Your Order and Song of the Korean People’s Army, which are the reflection of the mentality of all the people.

Likewise, during the years of the Arduous March and the forced march when socialism was faced with unprecendented challenges, Kim Jong Il’s politics of music was very influential. In the years after President Kim Il Sung passed away in 1994, Kim Jong Il did not appear on any public rostrum to make a speech, but the people knew his intention through famous songs, like The Leader Will Always Be with Us, Hold High the Red Flag, Socialism Is Ours, The Victorious Road, Arirang of Prosperity and Arirang of Army-People Unity.

In particular, the leader put forward the then Merited Chorus of the Korean People’s Army as the standard bearer and bugler of the Songun era. He saw as many as 100 of their performances and made sure that their songs resounded throughout the country—at front-line posts, at factories pulsating with the enthusiastic campaign of self-reliance, and at every place where there were people. The magnificent sound of the chorus like a volley of the multiple launch rocket system gave the Korean people greater courage than millions of food could do and gave the imperialist forces that were working hard to stifle the Korean socialism greater panic than any nuclear or missile weapons could do. Military songs that had played a big role in boosting the morale of the soldiers gained as great force as ever in the Songun era under Kim Jong Il’s wise leadership and were a powerful means of leading the revolution and the time. They were also an almighty weapon that gave full play to the ideological and spiritual exertions of the people.

The revolutionary military songs helped the Korean people realize the pressing need of the time and see the road ahead of them.

Urging that wherever there were soldiers there should be a sweeping revolutionary optimism and military spirit all the time nourished by the revolutionary marches, Kim Jong Il made sure that the revolutionary soldier culture of the Songun era was established. One February day in 1995, he inspected a coast artillery company defying the gale of the day. Seeing a performance of the company in which the officers and soldiers mixed together to sing and dance and recite poems while playing musical instruments, he gave an important instruction that the company should be adopted as the basic unit in further developing the soldier culture.

Even when the country was having a hard time over folds of sufferings he ensured that TV sets were sent to all military posts in the country. He also sent cameras, saying that it was necessary to help soldiers have so many photos taken as to produce a lyric that would sing of a cameraman at the company. A lot of entertainment facilities were also given to the service personnel for recreation after his instruction that the soldiers should be provided with a condition to enjoy diversified cultural and entertainment activities. Meanwhile, a new film distribution system was established based on TVs with a built-in video. His close concern brought up all the soldiers as men of noble cultural attainments, and the soldier culture spread across the country. The industrial workers, farm workers, scientists and all other people were influenced by the revolutionary cultural activities of the soldiers; they, upholding the slogan of “Let’s go the thorny path cheerfully!” turned out to build a thriving socialist country full of revolutionary optimism.

A good deal of masterpieces were produced, including Kim Il Sung Prize winner Arirang, which is a mass gymnastics and artistic performance, and Compendium of Korean Music which is an encyclopaedia of Juche-oriented music with as many as 10 500 pages. The famous lyrics and melodies, as priceless as anything in the world, aroused fervent enthusiasm for creation and construction among the people. The Kanggye Spirit was born, the Torch of Songgang and the Torch of Ranam were raised, and the land underwent admirable facelift. Modern farms went up here and there to grow chicken, catfish and other animals.

Singing revolutionary songs, the Korean people went through the hard time and opened up the victorious road to paradise. They defended their people-centred socialism successfully and advanced forcefully towards happiness and prosperity. They still enshrine the following instruction of their eternal leader Kim Jong Il: “Our revolution was, is and will be with songs. We’ll always sing songs to overcome pessimism with optimism and blow off hopelessness with hopefulness.”


Naenara, Febr. 2015

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