Kim Il-sung

"The national assembly of each country, as its highest legislative body, has a mission and responsibility to realise democratic government. Democracy must be not only the basic ideal of state administration for championing peoples right to independence, but also a common ideal of world politics for ensuring equality and cooperation among countries."

"The people are the masters of the revolution in each country. It is like putting a cart before the horse that foreigners carry out the revolution for them. The revolution can neither be exported nor imported."

"You must not overlook even the least practices which run counter to our Partys idea. It is all right if the cadre whom the party trusts behaves modestly, sincerely supports our Party, and works faithfully for the party. On the other hand, if he pretends to support the Party outwardly but has an ulterior motive and tries to make himself prominent and win over people to his side, such actions must not be permitted.… We have wiped out the factionalists and achieved the unity of the Party. If we are to maintain this unity firmly, we must not tolerate the slightest tendency toward nepotism, parochialism or factionalism within the Party and must promptly deal with any manifestations of "individual heroism."

"While there are still imperialist aggressors, the state that has no defense power of its own to protect its sovereignty against the internal and external enemies is, in fact, not a fully independent and sovereign state."

"Weve always been under sanctions. Even under all those sanctions we have made the growth thus far, so I am not afraid.… If you wish to lift the sanctions then lift them, or if you wish to impose sanctions then impose them. I do not care. We will improve our economy even further no matter what."

"If a man who professes to be a communist punishes an innocent person by labelling him a reactionary, hes no longer a communist, but the worst of criminals."

"The time has come when we Korean people have to unite our strength to build a new, democratic Korea. People from all strata should display patriotic enthusiasm and turn out to build a new Korea. To contribute posi­tively to the work of building the state, let those with strength give strength, let those with knowledge give knowledge, let those with money give money, and let all people who truly love their country, their nation and democ­racy unite closely and build an independent and sovereign democratic state."

"Revolutionaries, believe in the people and rely on them at all times and you shall always emerge victorious; if you are forsaken by them, you will always fail. Let this be your maxim in your life and struggle."

"What is Juche [the subject] in our Partys ideological work? What are we doing? We are not engaged in any other countrys revolution, but precisely in the Korean revolution. This, the Korean revolution, constitutes Juche in the ideological work of our Party. Therefore, all ideological work must be subordinated to the interests of the Korean revolution."

"In a nutshell, the idea of Juche means that the masters of the revolution and the work of construction are the masses of the people and that they are also the motive force of the revolution and the work of construction. In other words, one is responsible for ones own destiny and one has also the capacity for hewing out ones own destiny."

"The basis of the Juche Idea is that man is the master of all things and the decisive factor in everything."

"War is not only a contest of strength, but also a test of morality and ethics."