DEAR Friends,
As a Co-Chair of the International Preparatory Committee I would like to offer my cordial congratulations to both the Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Committee and the Indonesian Preparatory Committee for hosting this E-seminar. It is pleasing that this is being held in April, a month of great significance to the Korean people and a great addition to the previous E-seminar on January 8th on the birth anniversary of the Supreme Leader.
A half year has already passed since we formed the International Preparatory Committee to co-ordinate activities worldwide and August is drawing nearer to the 5th International Festival in Praise of the Great Persons of Mt Paektu which will be held with undoubted success in Pyongyang and the special mountain itself.
This E-seminar, being held under the title of "Mt Paektu and Korea Today", enables us to praise the revolutionary activities and undying exploits of the great leaders of Korea. It is important that we reflect on the special mountain of Mt Paektu and the Korean perception of it.
Around the world there are many great and symbolic mountains and mountain ranges that serve as inspirations to the local people and have served as a stimulus for poets and philosophers and spiritualists; Himalayas, Kilimanjaro, the Andes, the European Alps and many more. However Mt Paektu is a very sacred mountain for all the Korean people.
Mt Paektu is on the border with China in the northern area of Samjiyon County, Ryanggang Province DPRK and is the highest peak of Korea with an altitude of 2750m. This mountain is the fountainhead of the Tuman and Amrok (Yalu) rivers (the longest in Korea) but it is regarded as the ancestral mountain from where the Korean nation originated.
The path of the Korean revolution blazed by the great President Kim Il Sung started from Mt Paektu. The secret camps upon that mountain provided the staging ground for the offensive against Japanese imperialism and the associated flunkeyism that had brought about the ruin of a great nation. Kim Il Sung and his patriots were determined to restore the nation and the country. As the battles commenced HE Kim Jong Il was born at the camp and therefore was born with the spirit and soul of Mt Paektu.
Mt Paektu was also deeply associated with the exploits of the anti-Japanese heroine Mother Kim Jong Suk who held President Kim Il Sung in reverence. Thus the mountain, in association with the names of the great leaders of the nation has become the sacred mountain of the revolution which inspired the Korean people to carve out their own destiny with their own strength as well as creating the independent lives of their own. H.E. Kim Jong Un carries on the spirit of the mountain and those of his forebears: the spirit of self reliance and self development and a commitment to safeguard the national destiny and dignity of Korea and to work assiduously to brining glory to it.
For the last seminar held on January 8th, a birth anniversary of HE Kim Jong Un, I mentioned the characteristics of his politics. As in the past I am getting questions from many people about the sanctions and pressure being applied in response to the increased independent defence capabilities of Korea.
(This must be considered in the context that the vast majority of the media in the world is controlled by a handful of corporations and the editorial propaganda is consistently against DPRK. Even-handedness is rarely obvious so the truth about the failure of the US to sign a Peace Treaty as required by the Armistice is ignored as are the huge provocative military exercises carried out on the border by the US and other reactionary forces.)
When one considers this situation it is no wonder that HE Kim Jong Un ensures that the defensive nuclear capability of his country is in place. After all he is a person of the lineage of Mt Paektu who are respected and praised as the eternal Sun of Juche by progressive people around the world. He also displays a mastery of politics. He saw what happened to Iraq and Libya when their leadership gave up their defensive weapon development on assurances from the duplicitous forces of darkness in the West. He has a responsibility to defend Korea. He needs no reminding of that.
Like his predecessors he is charismatic, creative, an iron-willed commander with versatile talents. He is attacked by many western countries allied to the US. They like predictability. Kim Jong Un is not predictable and that is what makes him a unique leader. He is predictable on one thing, however, and that is he will always defend his beloved people.
From my observations there is no other country where the citizens unite around the leader so rock-solid. This makes it difficult for the enemies of Korea to infiltrate and destabalise the nation. The future of Korea , a country that demonstrates its grandeur as a great Paektusan nation, will have an assured future while-ever it maintains its own solidarity and the solid leadership of HE Kim Jong Un.
As a humble friend of Korea, as a student of its history, I am therefore determined to devote my life to raise the public awareness of and support actions for the independent reunification of Korea. A change of government in the south may be a good omen to restore the opening up of peaceful dialogue and thereby ensure that the future of Korea will be determined by Koreans and foreign troops and their offensive and invasive weapons will be removed once and for all. This is possible and we should remain eternally optimistic to this outcome and be vigilant to the efforts of those who would seek to prevent such a normalisation.
As a co-chair of the International Preparatory Committee for "Gathering 2017-Praise to the Great Persons of Mt Paektu" I call upon all to vigorously march forward and support the honouring of those great persons in Pyongyang and Mt Paektu.***
Peter Woods
Co-Chair International Preparatory Committee for "Gathering 2017-Praise to the Great Persons of Mt Paektu"
Co-Chair Asia Pacific Regional Preparatory Committee for Korea's Peaceful Reunification
Ambassador United Cities and Local Governments -Asia Pacific
The Path of the Korean Revolution Blazed by the Great President Kim Il Sung Started from Mt Paektu
