Five years have passed since this historic day. On this day, the entire Korean people are looking back with deep emotion with boundless yawning for the fatherly leader on his great painstaking efforts and great exploits of his leadership devoted on the road to national reunification.

From the very first days of the division of the country and the nation by the foreign forces, the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG put forth the national reunification as the supreme national task and exerted untiring efforts for the cause of national reunification till last moment his heart stopped beating without a day's rest throughout half a century, saying the best gift he could give to our people is national reunification, thus rendering undying exploits to be recorded with credit before the motherland and the nation.

It is the greatest feat the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG performed in the history of national reunification that he elucidated its bright road ahead by setting forth the most realistic and just principles and methods of the country's reunification.

On the historic day marking the 5th anniversary on which the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG left his last life-time autographs on the document concerning national reunification, the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea publishes this Memorandum, acknowledging the need to make public once again to hand down to posterity for ever his immortal exploits of illuminating the clear road to reunification by setting forth evidently the principles and methods of national reunification.

1. GREAT EXPLOITS

1) The Three Principles of National Reunification - Common National Reunification Programme

Ushering in the 1970s, the internal and external situation surrounding the reunification question of our country became very complicated.

Driven into a serious crisis within and without, the United States came out with the so-called peace strategy under the signboard of the Nixon Doctrine and hanged on to crafty plots to achieve its aggression objectives by way of inducing Asian people to fight against each other in Asia.

Meanwhile, the south Korean authorities moved into a step further toward confrontation and permanent division, following more feverishly the aggression policy of the United States.

In his commemoration address on August 5 restoration day in August Juche 59 (1970), the south Korean top authority even went the length of openly proclaiming their separatist manoeuvres as a policy.

The then prevailing situation presented it as an urgent task to take decisive measures to solve the reunification issue of our country on our nation's own strength without being trifled with by anyone.

In reflection of this requirement by the development of the rapidly changing situation at home and abroad, the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG advanced the policy of wide-ranging negotiations between the north and south on August 6, Juche 60 (1971).

It resulted in opening of various talks between the north and the south for the first time in the history of division, followed by holding of the North-South High-level Political Talks, the first of its kind in Pyongyang in May Juche 61 (1972).

On may 3, Juche 61 (1972), the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG received the south Korean delegates who came to Pyongyang to participate in the high0-level political talks and clarified the three principles of national reunification which he had conceived and matured for a long time.

The three principles of national reunification elucidated anew by the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG on this day are as follows:

First, national reunification should be realized independently without reliance on outside forces and free from their interference.

Second, great national unity should be promoted by transcending the differences in ideas, ideals and systems.

Third, national reunification should be achieved by peaceful means without resorting to arms.

The three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity advanced by the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG are the most fair and reasonable national reunification programme acceptable to any Korean as they reflect the unanimous desire and will of all the Korean people who wish for the country's reunification.

Therefore, even the south Korean authorities were compelled to accept the three principles of national reunification at their face value. Thus, the three principles of national reunification of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity put forward by the great leader became common reunification programme confirmed by the north and south, whose main content was later published in the historic July 4 North-South Joint Statement.

Indeed, the three principles of national reunification of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity advanced by the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG constitute the programmatic guideline for the entire fellow countrymen in the north, south and overseas to rely upon without fail in resolving the reunification issue.

The principles of independence is the fundamental principle to be maintained in any case in solving the reunification question. The question of our national reunification is essentially the question of ending foreign domination and interference and regaining the national sovereignty on a nation-wide scale.

Originally, our national division was not incurred by internal contradiction of the nation but was entirely forced upon by outside forces.

After the Second World War, the great powers disposed the Korean question in their own interests contrary to the independent demand and will of our nation and our country was eventually divided into the north and south by the occupation of the foreign forces. Failure of our national reunification up to now is also attributable to the interference and obstruction manoeuvres of the outside forces. Accordingly, the reunification issue is unthinkable apart from independence of the nation.

Today, the main obstacle to the independent reunification of Korea is the occupation of south Korea by the US troops. The United States is the ringleader of our national division and it is the root-cause of misfortunes and sufferings of our people.

The attitude toward withdrawal of the US troops from south Korea is a touchstone that distinguishes whether one truly wants reunification or pursues division, whether he is a patriot or traitor. The reunification issue of Korea is the internal matter of the nation to be solved independently by the Korean nation. The Korean nation is the party which has vital interests in the country's reunification and it is also none other than our nation that has to bring them into effect. Only when we firmly adhere to the independent stand can e solve the reunification problem according to our nation's demand and interests.

The reunification problem of our country should on all accounts be settled by peaceful means. It is not the matter to conquer or to be conquered upon by any one side but the problem of achieving national unity. Our nation has no reason to fight against each other. Any attempt to realize reunification by dint of arms will inevitably lead to only fratricidal war and disaster resulting therefrom.

Therefore, the reunification of Korea should in any case be settled by peaceful means through dialogues and negotiations between the north and the south.

The great national unity is the main guarantee for national reunification. Harmony and unity of the whole nation is immediately reunification. As national reunification is the national cause to establish independence of the nation, it cannot be realized by the efforts of a few people, certain class or strata. It can be achieved only by the united efforts of the whole nation. The Korean nation as the main subject of national reunification should achieve the cause of national reunification by its own strength on its own responsibility. To do so, the whole nation should be firmly united.

Indeed, the three principles of national reunification of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity elucidated by the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG constitute the starting point, basis in resolving the reunification problem of our country.

However, the situation may change in future, our country's reunification should be achieved in any case on the basis of the three principles of national reunification. All the initiatives and proposals set forth by the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are based on the three principles of national reunification and run through with the ways to thoroughly implement them.

2) Proposal on Founding the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo (DCRK) - Grand Programme of National Reunification

Entering the 1980s, more serious difficulties were created on the road to national reunification due to the manoeuvres of separatists within and without.

Moreover, the south Korean authorities sought for permanent division of the country by openly advocating the so-called theory on unification impossibility claiming that justification for reunification has already dies out due to heterogeneity of the nation.

On the basis of deep analysis of the prevailing internal and external situation, the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG, in his report to the 6th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in October Juche 69 (1980), put forward important reunification proposal on achieving national reunification through establishment of a confederal state by the north and the south leaving different ideas and systems intact.

The great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG said as follows:

Our Party maintains that the country should be reunified by founding a confederal republic through the establishment of a unified national government on the condition that the north and the south recognize and tolerate each other's ideas and social systems, a government in which the two sides are represented on an equal footing and under which they exercise regional autonomy with equal rights and duties. The proposed DCRK is the most aboveboard, reasonable and realistic reunification proposal. Its is the reunification proposal hat most correctly reflected the nature of the reunification issue of our country and its specific realities.

National reunification is not merely for a certain party or any privileged classes and strata in the north and south, but for the whole nation which is undergoing misfortunes and sufferings due to the country's division. Accordingly, reunification should be resolved in conformity with the national interests on all accounts. The reality is diametrically different in the north and south of our country. Different ideas and systems have existed and prevailed in the north and south for over half a century and neither side is willing to give them up in favour of the other. If both sides should consider their ideas and systems as absolute and try to force them on the other side today, national reunification will never be realized any time. This will result in further aggravating the division rather than bringing about reunification.

Under such circumstances, the best way of reunifying the country at an earliest date is only to found the unified national state by the confederation formula based on one nation, one state, two systems and two governments.

The proposal on founding the DCRK is the most realistic and reasonable one since it ensures the national reunification in a way which allows neither side to conquer the other nor to be conquered by the other in consideration of actual conditions of existence of different ideas and systems in the north and south.

The proposed DCRK is the proposal of reunification which reflects on a most impartial basis the interests of the north and south. The question of reunification of our country requires to be achieved on a fair basis by putting the common demands and interests of the nation before everything else and without either side being infringed upon its interests.

Considering the interests of the north and south with equity, the proposal on founding the DCRK gives inclusive answers to all maters arising in the establishment and operation of a reunified state such as principles and methods on how to form a confederal state, duties of the unified government and regional government and their co-relation, function, nature and name of the confederal state. It is stipulated in the proposal that the supreme national confederal assembly should be formed as the unified government and that this assembly should form a confederal standing committee which will exercise its authority over the regional governments of the north and south and discuss and decide on political matters, matters of national defence, foreign affairs and promote the work for coordinated development of the country and the nation. The proposal also stipulates that the regional governments of the north and south in the confederation should follow, under the leadership of the confederal government, an independent policy within limits that are consistent with the fundamental interests and demands of the whole nation, and jointly strive to narrow down the differences between the north and south in all spheres and to ensure the uniform development of the country and the nation.

The proposal also provides that the confederal republic should be in nature an independent, neutral, peace-loving and nonaligned state and specifies that the country's name will be the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo.

As shown in the above, the proposal on founding the DCRK defines all maters of building a unified state in conformity with the common aspirations and desires of the nation without giving a bias toward one side of the north and south. Accordingly, it is considered undoubtedly to be the most fair reunification proposal acceptable to anyone who loves the country and the nation and truly wishes for reunification.

It is the only proposal which is most realistic for reunification in our country, It is the reunification proposal based on the unique ideas and practical possibility that different ideas and systems can exist in one country. The two different systems existing in the north and south can never be the conditions for separated living of one nation. Neither can they be insurmountable obstacle to achieving reunification by the Korean nation.

It remains out of question that the two systems can co-exist within one state, one reunified community if they stand on the national commonness which has continued to be inherited historically.

Carious political parties with different ideas, viewpoints and standings are now forming coalition governments in alliance in many countries. Such a mode of state politics has become one of the international trends. Some years ago, Hong Kong was handed over to China. This gives a practical illustration of the fact that the two different systems can co-exist in one country. The different ideas and systems cannot remain as a question at all because our reunification by the confederation formula makes it possible for the regional governments to pursue regional autonomy respectively with equal rights and duties.

The establishment of the confederal state on the Korean peninsula will make great contributions towards ensuring security and peace in the region as well.

Since our country is geographically sandwiched between the big powers and situated in a strategically important place linking the continent and ocean, it has become a subject for scrambling of the big powers to increase their sphere of influence throughout history. It will not escape again from the intervention of the big powers if a reunified state becomes a satellite state of a big power or joins any bloc. If this is the case, we will not be able to maintain existence of the confederal state which may invite the result of shifting the Korean peninsula into a place of confrontation by the big powers. It is imperative for the confederal state to follow the neutral line externally since it is to be formed with the different systems.

Indeed, the proposal on founding the DCRK advanced by the great leader is a great reunification programme which shows a bright way to bring about an earliest reunification of our country without any difficulty on a most aboveboard basis.

3) The Ten-Point Programme of the great Unity of the Whole Nation- Great Charter for National Unity

Entering the 1990s, characterized by the collapse of socialism in eastern Europe and the destruction of the balance of forces in international arena, the imperialists capitalized on this opportunity by resorting to all inconceivable ways and means to impose undisguised political pressure, economic blockade and military threats on those progressive countries which go in for independence, in their attempt to establish a world order under their control.

Particularly, the United States has put military pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea over the fictitious "nuclear issue" by staging the "team spirit" joint military exercise, the world largest scale war game.

Such tensions prevailing on the Korean peninsula has been further sharpened by the attempts on the part of the south Korean authorities to antagonize the fellow countrymen and to seek permanent national division in alliance with the foreign forces. The grave situation has posed the life-and-death question before our fellow countrymen whether we should defend the dignity of the nation and achieve national reunification through the great unity of the whole nation or we would simply continue enmity and confrontation against the same fellow countrymen only to fall a victim to the big powers.

With his deep insight into the demand of the prevailing situation and on the basis of his precious experience and compiled successes in his struggle for achieving the great unity of the nation, the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG clarified at the fifth session of the 9th Supreme People's Assembly in April Juche 82 (1993) that those with strength devote their strength, those with knowledge giving their knowledge and those with money donating their money, all should make a tangible contribution to the reunification of the country and the development and prosperity of a reunified fatherland, and advanced the 10-Point Programme of the Great Unity of the Whole Nation for the Reunification of the Country. The ten-point programme advanced by the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG is as follows:

1. A unified state, independent, peaceful and neutral, should be founded through the great unity of the whole nation.

The north and the south should found a pan-national unified state to represent all parties, all groupings, and all the members of the nation from all walks of life, while leaving the existing two systems and two governments intact. The pan-national unified state should be a confederal state in which the two regional governments of the north and the south are represented equally, and an independent, peaceful and nonaligned neutral state which does not lean to any great power.

2. Unity should be based on patriotism and the spirit of national independence.

All the members of the nation should link their individual destiny with that of the nation, love their nation passionately and unite with the single desire to defend the independence of the nation. They should display dignity and pride in being members of our nation and reject sycophancy and national nihilism that erode the nation's consciousness of independence.

3. Unity should be achieved on the principle of promoting co-existence, co-prosperity and common interests and subordinating everything to the cause of national reunification.

The north and the south should recognize and respect the existence of different beliefs, ideas and systems, and achieve joint progress and prosperity, with neither side encroaching on the other. They should promote the interests of the whole nation before regional and class interests and direct every effort to the accomplishment of the cause of national reunification.

4. All political disputes that foment division and confrontation between fellow countrymen should be ended and unity should be achieved.

The north and the south should refrain from seeking or fomenting confrontation, end all political disputes between them and stop abusing and slandering each other. As fellow countrymen they should not be hostile to each other and, through the united efforts of the nation, they should counter foreign aggression and interference.

5. The fear of invasion from both south and north, and the ideas of prevailing over communism and communization should be dispelled, and north and south should believe in each other and unite.

The north and the south should not threaten and invade each other. Neither side should try to force its system on the other or to absorb the other.

6. The north and south should value democracy and join hands on the road to national reunification, without rejecting each other because of differences in ideals and principles.

They should guarantee the freedom of debate on and of activities for reunification and should not suppress, take reprisals against, persecute or punish political opponents. They should not arrest anyone because of their pro-north or pro-south tendencies and should release and reinstate all political prisoners so that they may contribute to the cause of national reunification.

7. The north and south should protect the material and spiritual wealth of individuals and organizations and encourage their use for the promotion of great national unity.

Both before reunification and after it they should recognize state ownership, cooperative ownership and private ownership and protect the capital and property of individuals and organizations, as well as all interests concerned with foreign capital. They should recognize the social reputation and qualifications of individuals in all domains including science, education, literature, the arts, public debate, the press, health care and sports, and continue to guarantee the benefits granted to people who have performed meritorious services.

8. Understanding, trust and unity should be built up across the nation through contact, exchange visits and dialogue.

All the obstacles to contact and exchange visits should be removed and the door should be opened for everyone without discrimination to undertake exchange visits. All the parties, groupings and people of all social standings should be given equal opportunities to conduct dialogue, and bilateral and multilateral dialogue should be developed.

9. The whole nation, north, south and overseas, should strengthen its solidarity for the sake of national reunification.

Things beneficial to national reunification should be supported and encouraged in an unbiased manner and things harmful to it should be rejected in the north, in the south and overseas, and all should assist and cooperate with one another, going beyond their own narrow enclosure. All political parties, organizations and the people from all walks of life in the north, in the south and overseas should be allied organizationally in the patriotic work to achieve national reunification.

10. Those who have contributed to the great unity of the nation and to the cause of national reunification should be honoured.

Special favours should be granted to those who have performed exploits for the sake of the great unity of the nation and the reunification of the country, to patriotic martyrs and to their descendants. If those who had turned their back on the nation in the past return to the patriotic road, repentant of their past, they should be dealt with leniently and assessed fairly, according to the contribution they have made to the cause of national reunification.

The 10-point programme for the great unity of the whole nation put forward by the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG is the most aboveboard and realistic common programme for our nation since it clarified the fundamental problems in overcoming all obstacles and achieving reconciliation and reunification of the whole nation, by compiling our nation's will and desire into an integral whole.

The 10-point programme of the great unity of the whole nation is the great charter and banner of national unity which enable all Koreans who are concerned about the destiny of the country and the nation, be they in the north, south and overseas, communists or nationalists, haves or have-nots and atheists or theists, to unite as one nation transcending all differences to open up together the road to national reunification.

2. BRILLIANT SUCCESSION

Today, the cause of national reunification of the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG is brilliantly carried forward by the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL.

The great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL wisely leads in the van of the movement of national reunification with his firm determination and unswerving will to materialize the country's reunification by carrying out the last teachings of the fatherly leader on reunification.

The great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL who regards the great national unity as the most important task for national reunification has performed undying exploits on the road of inheriting the idea and cause of great national unity of the fatherly leader.

The great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL saw to it that an autographic monument was built in Panmunjom, which engraved the last handwritings the great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG left on the document concerning reunification issue, in order to hand down to posterity and further glorify along with the history of the nation the feats of the fatherly leader rendered in the sacred cause of reunification.

It enshrines as it stands the immutable will of the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL to reunify the country without fail, true to the behests of the fatherly leader.

The great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL deems it an iron rule to hold fast to and implement the Juche-oriented lines and policies of national reunification advanced by the fatherly leader.

In his historic works Let Us Carry Out the Great leader Comrade KIM IL SUNG's Instructions for National Reunification published on August 4, Juche 86 (11997) on the 52nd anniversary of the fatherland liberation, the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL stipulated that the three principles of national reunification, the ten-point programme of the great unity of the whole nation and the proposal on founding the DCRK advanced by the great leader constitute the three charters for national reunification to be invariably maintained and implemented under any situation and circumstances, thus laying the solid pillar for reunification.

It is the greatest exploits performed by the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL in the history of national reunification movement that he complied into a systematic whole the immortal exploits of the fatherly leader who devoted all his life solely to the cause of national reunification and secure a firm pillar of national reunification.

The three charters for national reunification elucidated by the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL provided our people with clear prospect for accomplishing earlier the historic cause of national reunification on the basis of lofty legacy and solid foundation left by the fatherly leader.

The great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL, in his historic works Let Us reunify the Country Independently and Peacefully through the Great Unity of the Entire Nation, published on April 18, last year, set forth the 5-point policy of great national unity whose contents are to maintain the principle of national independence, achieve unity under the banner of patriotism, the banner of national reunification, improve the north-south relations fight against domination of the foreign forces and anti-reunification forces and promote mutual visits, contacts and dialogue among our compatriots and strengthen solidarity.

The 5-point policy of great national unity is the great charter of national unity which developed in depth the fatherly leader's idea on great national unity in conformity with the requirement of a new era.

It is the banner and guideline of national unity lightening the road on which the whole nation in the north, south and overseas can achieve firm unity with priority given to the common interests of the nation, on the solidest basis.

With the publication of the 5-point policy of great national unity, our nation could glorify for ever the fatherly leader's immortal exploits of the great national unity and attain the historic milestone to open up a new higher stage of the cause of great national unity, a new era of national reunification.

The great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL initiated convocation of grand national conference, a nation-wide reunification consultation, by gathering the reunification will of the entire nation in the north, south and overseas, on the occasion of the historic 50th anniversary of the fatherland liberation.

Under the meticulous guidance and care of the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL, a historic grand national conference was held in Panmunjom with the participation of representatives from different political parties and social organizations and personages of strata in the north, south and overseas, in which the proposal on reunification through confederacy put forward by the fatherly leader was confirmed as a common method of national reunification.

It was a historic event which brought about a new turn in the development of reunification movement in our country.

Thanks to the outstanding and seasoned leadership of the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL who is identical with the fatherly leader, our fellow countrymen changed their grief of having lost the father of the nation into strength and courage and continue their dynamic grand march to national reunification, foiling at every step the anti-reunification moves of the separatists at home and abroad.

Indeed, the respected Comrade KIM JONG IL is the great lodestar of national reunification.

The Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will make every effort to bring earlier the independent and peaceful reunification of the country with the support and encouragement of the governments and people of many countries of the world that love peace and justice, under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade KIM JONG IL who brilliantly carries forward the last teachings of the great leader on national reunification.