South Korean left-activist students may undergo more drudgery than North Koreans in memorizing North Korea's New Year message to its people in its entirety, as reported in the North Korean Report, for the former are required to completely master the (South) Korea Nationalism and Democracy Front's New Year message as well.

It was probably in 1990 that I first came in contact with Kim Il Sung's New Year's message. A senior of mine was reading a crudely-printed pamphlet entitled "Evaluation and Prospects." A notice in the leftist student movement, eager to devour any books read by my seniors, I asked for the booklet at a bookstore near my college. The store proprietor, looking at me with suspicious eyes, said he hadn't got it. My senior, when told about the story, laughed. He lectured me on the Workers' Party, the (South) Korea Nationalism and Democracy Front and Kim Il Sung. When I visited the bookstore again with the senior, I was able to obtain a copy of the pamphlet in question. What a delight it was to receive the booklet, taken out of a hidden place behind bookshelves! That was the first time for me to access the New year's message of the North.

Though the front is claimed to be a vanguard organization of the Juche ideology faction operating in the South, its' generally accepted that it in fact exists in the North. Broadcasts of the "Voice of National Salvation" aired from a transmission tower in Haeju, South Hwang hae Province, North Korea, the Juche ideology faction in the South takes notes and disseminates them.

The Nationalism and Democracy Front also issues a New Year's message every year. The left-activist group has a small team, specializing in listening to the "Voice of National Salvation" radio, compiling its contents into booklets and distributing them. They are distributed on January 2 or 3 every year without fail, titled, "Friends," "National Salvation Front," "Voice of No-defeat," "Patriotic Voice," or "Lighthouse."

Printed in them are Kim Il Sung's New Year's message, the Nationalism and Democracy Front's address, annual evaluations and prospects, and New Year's discussions, issued by the Front. Debates take place on them among seniors first and then by juniors. In the course of conducting about a dozen debates, the activist students naturally learn them by heart. Shameful as I'm, I too recited Kim Il Sung's New Year's message in full, perfectly imitating his voice.

Unique phrases appearing in the New Year's message become words in vogue of the pertinent year. Among them are "the top of a mountain pass to unification," "the first year toward unification," and "strength with convictions." Since I quit the movement in 1996, I read this year's New Year message for the first time in four years. I could access it with ease via the Internet. The dreadful days when we distributed its copies in secret have apparently gone away for good.

Two sentiments assail me as I write this letter. One is a sense of guilt toward North Koreans. Once I read a story about a person who was beaten to death in a political detention camp in the North for having failed to memorize the New Year's message, in the memories of a North Korean defector named Ri Sun Ok. The story made me agonize. Another is a sense of pity toward some South Korean leftist students, who appear to be filled with admiration for "comrade Kim Jung Il's greatness and affection."