Anecdote

Three Principles of National Reunification

On May 3, 1972, President Kim Il Sung met the representative from south Korea who came to Pyongyang to attend the North-South High-level Political Talks.

Kim Il Sung said:

"I'm glad to meet you today. I am highly delighted and also deeply move that we, fellow countrymen, have met after a long separation because of the division of the nation."

The south Korean representative bowed courteously to the President and expressed his thanks to him, adding it was a great honor for him to visist Pyongyang this time.

Saying he was sorry to have had him wake to meet him, the President invited him politely to be seated and smoke. After a while he mentioned the urgency of national reunification and the necessity of fundamental principles which could provide the basis for solving the reunification question, stressing that only when there were fundamental principles agreed by the two sides, can they make joint efforts for reunification and successfully solve all problems concerning it. He then put forward the three principles of national reunification - independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity - that should be abided by in solving the reunification question of Korea, and gave a detailed explanation of the contents of principle.

Every time the south Korean representative said, "You are right," "Quite right," and "I fully agree with you."

After reminding him of the three principles, President Kim Il Sung said: "Through the recent talks we have found important common grounds and reached an agreement on the most principled problems. The three principles of realizing independent reunification without outside interference, achieving great national unity by transcending differrences in ideas, ideals and systems, and reunifying the divided land by peaceful means without recourse to armed force are the starting point of and the basis for the solution of our reunification question."

The representative from south Korea rose from his seat and said to him, "I pledge assuredly to regard the three principles as the biggest pillar for reunification."

President Kim Il Sung advanced the idea of forming a reunification organization like a north-south coordinating commission as a joint organization of the nation to realize the three principles. The south Korean delegation agreed with it in principle.

This was how the basis of the North - South Joint Statement, the common program of the nation, was laid.