"Let's all be united firmly around our beloved General Kim Jong Il, the great sun of the 21st century... and enhance the dignity and honor of the nation of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il." These are the closing remarks the North Korean Supreme People's Assembly standing committee chairman, Kim Yong Nam, made in an address he delivered at an August 14 ceremony dedicating the "Memorial Tower of Three Unification Principles," built at the entrance of Tongil (unification) Street, Pyongyang.

From the perspective of the traditional doctrine of Marxism, nations or nationalism ought to be fought against and overcome capitalist ideas. North Korea too used to adopt such a position. But a major shift began to take place in the North in the late 1980s and early 1990s when it began emphasizing "our nation" rather than the class.

The change sprouted when Kim Jong Il first used the term "our nation first policy" in his statement issued in July 1986, which took its shape as "the Korean nation first policy" in his statement of December 1989. He defined “our nation” or Korean nation first policy in these words: "Our pride lies in upholding the great supreme leader, being led by the great party, making juche (self-reliance) ideology the guiding ideology, and living in a superior social system." He went so far as to proclaim, "The greatest happiness of the nation consists in being led by the great supreme leader."

Position shifting involving nation and nationalism was revealed more clearly in remarks Kim Il Sung made in August 1990 to ranking North Korean headquarters officials of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland and the Pan-national Federation of Democratic Organizations. "The class can exist only when the nation exists, and class interests can be guaranteed only if national interests are guaranteed."

Kim Jong Il first used the term "Kim Il Sung nation" in October 1994 in a statement he made to leading central party officials, while observing a memorial service marking the l00th day of Kim Il Sung's death. "Though the founder of the nation is Tangun, the father of socialist Korea is the great supreme leader Comrade Kim Il Sung," he said, thereby elevating the Kim senior to the status of the legendary originator of the nation.

North Korea defines “our nation” even as the Kim Il Sung or Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il nation based on three achievements allegedly made by Kim Il Sung. They maintain that Kim Il Sung pioneered a new independent history of development for the nation, nourished “our” nation which used to be mistreated and insulted into a dignified and proud nation looked up to by the world, and established in the North a strong country based on the principles of independence, self-reliance and self-defense. The chief characteristic of the Kim Il Sung nation is the consciousness of loyalty to the great leader, which, in turn, is the supreme expression of the excellent national characteristic of the Kim Il Sung nation, they assert.

(Kim Kwang In, kki@chosun.com )