Let Us Open a New Era of Rejuvenation of Chongryon by Enlisting the Inexhaustible Strength of the Compatriots of Various Social Strata

I feel it happy that the 25th Congress of Chongryon (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan) has been convened in this meaningful year, when we celebrated the 110th anniversary of the birth of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and the 80th anniversary of the birth of the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il as auspicious revolutionary events, as the greatest political festivals of our nation.

On the occasion of the 25th Congress of Chongryon, which has opened amid the great interest and expectation at home and abroad in the stirring period when the dignity and powerful strength of Juche Korea are being demonstrated all over the world, I extend, along with the hearts of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, warmest congratulations and greetings to the participants in the congress and all other officials of Chongryon and compatriots in Japan.

In strengthening Chongryon, a dignified organization of the overseas citizens of our Republic, and developing the movement of Koreans in Japan on a steady upward track, the role of the congress, the highest decision-making body of Chongryon, is very important.

To look back, the long course Chongryon has traversed up to now since the day of its formation, when the movement of Koreans in Japan rooted in Paektu, the sacred mountain of the revolution, was firmly put into the Juche-oriented orbit, is proudly recorded with its congresses that constituted watersheds of inheritance and innovation, advance and leap forward.

Whenever the congresses of Chongryon were held, the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, founders and builders of Chongryon, would send letters of congratulation, clarifying the road ahead of the movement of Koreans in Japan and blessing the happy future of the compatriots in Japan.

True to their idea of the Juche-based overseas compatriots’ movement and their guidance, officials of Chongryon and other compatriots in Japan have climbed a “high mountain” of the cause of patriotism whenever a congress has been held while overcoming all sorts of difficulties in an alien land.

The whole historical course traversed by Chongryon and the movement of Koreans in Japan was a continuation of a march against all odds, but the past four years since the 24th Congress was a period of harsh trials, when all the compatriots had to experience too much difficulties owing to the aggravated anti-DPRK and anti-Chongryon manoeuvrings by the hostile forces and the global spread of the epidemic disease.

However, in the face of manifold indescribable difficulties the officials of Chongryon and other compatriots in Japan kept step with their socialist homeland, achieving remarkable victory in every theatre of struggle where a new golden age is being ushered in the movement of Koreans in Japan.

Even in the protracted circumstances in which their visits to their homeland were suspended, the compatriots in Japan have dedicated their devotion for their homeland and nation, demonstrating their original features. Witnessing this ennobling spiritual world, the people in the homeland gained great strength and realized more keenly how precious Chongryon, a patriotic legacy of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, is.

I pay a high tribute to the officials of the elder generations of Chongryon, including Comrades Han Tok Su, Ri Jin Gyu, So Man Sul, Ri Kye Baek and the other sung and unsung compatriots of the first generation, who devoted their all for the reunification and development of their homeland and victorious advance of the movement of Koreans in Japan in the unprecedentedly harsh previous decades.

And I extend thanks to all the officials of Chongryon and other compatriots in Japan who are devoting their pure conscience and sense of obligation on the sacred road of opening an era of a new upsurge of the movement of Koreans in Japan without claiming any fame and reward and by stoutly overcoming all the difficulties in the alien land with their lot cast in with their homeland.

Availing myself of this opportunity, on behalf of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the government of the DPRK and on my own, I extend warm gratitude to the personages of conscience and other Japanese peace-loving people and diplomatic envoys of different countries in Japan, who are rendering active encouragement to Chongryon and the Koreans resident in Japan in their righteous struggle.

Chongryon and the movement of Koreans in Japan made a great leap forward in the struggle of last ten years for ushering in a new heyday for themselves, and have developed from the stage of being defended and preserved to an era of comprehensive development for a higher goal.

The current congress held at this juncture will constitute a gathering of great significance in accelerating the patriotic advance for accomplishing the far-reaching ambition and ideal of building a powerful Chongryon.

The basic task of Chongryon in this period is to open wider the new era of prosperity of the movement of Koreans in Japan, a new era of its rejuvenation, by pooling the efforts of the compatriots of all walks of life.

The inexhaustible strength of the compatriots, who are rallied behind a great ideology and by the bonds of kinship, is a guarantee for the eternal victory of Chongryon and the movement of Koreans in Japan.

This is an absolute truth proved by the history of Chongryon and the movement of Koreans in Japan, as well as a proud review of the work of the 24th Central Standing Committee of Chongryon.

Chongryon should victoriously usher in a new era of its rejuvenation by enlisting its one and only driving force, the inexhaustible strength of the broad sections of the compatriots, who are burning their hearts with patriotism.

The first task facing Chongryon is to orient all its activities to the fellow-compatriots-first principle and pursue it as its invariable principle.

This principle is an embodiment of the great Juche idea, the people-first principle, in the practical movement of Koreans in Japan.

Chongryon, guided by the Juche idea, should develop as an organization governed by this principle and advance holding aloft this slogan.

As a champion and advocate of the democratic national rights and interests of the Koreans resident in Japan, Chongryon organizations, affiliates and other bodies at all levels should always give priority to the struggle to defend and expand their rights to independence, existence and development.

Always keeping in mind the wish of the first generation of Chongryon who set it up and defended the places of learning for the children of the fellow compatriots at the cost of their blood and sweat, Chongryon officials and other compatriots in Japan should launch a stronger campaign to defend their rights to education, business and livelihood.

Chongryon organizations and their affiliates at all levels should adopt a thoroughgoing approach to the matter of defending the rights of the compatriots, regarding it as an essential task in safeguarding the achievements gained in the patriotic effort, and further expand the realm of the mass movement for the rights and interests of the compatriots.

Chongryon should also launch an intense struggle to make the Japanese authorities revoke their unjust measures of checking the visits to the homeland by the Koreans in Japan, including the Deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK.

The government of our Republic will, in the future, too, take thoroughgoing state measures to defend and provide their democratic national rights and interests in line with the law on defending the rights and interests of the overseas Koreans, and implement one special measure after another to guarantee their rights to independence, existence and development.

Organizations, affiliates and other bodies at all levels of Chongryon should, with ardent feeling of kinship, devote all their efforts also to service and welfare activities for promoting convenience in the life of the compatriots.

It is my sincere feeling to have all the wealth of the country spent for our priceless compatriots in Japan, true to the intention of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who, always mindful of overseas compatriots, bestowed all affection and benevolence on them.

In waging all undertakings and activities, Chongryon should give top and absolute priority to the demands, interests and convenience of the compatriots and conduct the service and welfare activities closely related to their life. In this course it can raise their confidence in its organizations and remarkably expand its mass basis.

It should run the life consultation offices on a regular basis and solve with all sincerity their demands related with marriage, job-seeking and the problems of the elderly and disabled persons.

It should go deeper and more frequently among the compatriots the harder the times are, so that the community of Koreans brims over with the beautiful trait of helping one another displaying tenderness and human feeling.

It should focus an all-out effort on protecting and taking care of the lives and health of the compatriots.

No undertaking is more crucial and important than to safely protect the lives, health and homes of the compatriots in Japan which is prone to earthquake, tsunami and typhoon.

Chongryon should investigate the resistance against earthquake by the institutes and schools of various levels and houses of compatriots and take relevant measures. And it should concern itself more with and pay special heed to the compatriots living in the areas vulnerable to natural disasters. In this way it can ensure that not a single compatriot suffers a misfortune.

Although the community of Koreans has not sustained a huge loss from the global pandemic thanks to its preemptive measures and painstaking efforts, Chongryon should never rest content or relax but continue to direct strenuous efforts to the safety of compatriots, so that every one of them is healthy and free from illness.

The second task facing Chongryon is to develop its democratic national education into one which can shoulder the future of the movement of the Koreans in Japan and to which the compatriots can readily entrust their children.

Democratic national education is the lifeline of Chongryon and the movement of the Koreans in Japan and a patriotic undertaking of ever-lasting value on which the existence and future of the community of Koreans in Japan depend.

Therefore, the democratic national education of Chongryon should focus, to all intents and purposes, on imparting a correct understanding of their leader, homeland and nation to the compatriots.

To this end, Chongryon should channel a primary effort into turning the ranks of educationists into those of career revolutionaries who can take responsibility for the future of its patriotic cause.

The Union of Korean Teachers in Japan should provide substantial guidance and assistance to all the teachers with the focus put on arming them firmly with the policy of making a revolution in education in the new era and improving their qualifications and abilities as educationists.

The educationists of Chongryon should, mindful of their unique pride and mission in taking responsibility for the future of the movement of the Koreans in Japan, lead others in ushering in an era of efflorescence of national education.

They should establish the Juche orientation firmly in national education and constantly renovate the contents and methods of education in line with the global trend of the development of education.

While giving definite precedence to politico-ideological education and education in national identity, schools at all levels should further improve the contents of education in the direction of teaching the compatriots the knowledge and skills essential to their work and life.

They should proactively create new teaching methods and various methods of extracurricular education that conform with the ages and psychological features of the students, and share them with one another.

Chongryon should decisively increase the number of students of its schools of various levels.

All its organizations should buckle down and guide the work of recruiting students and enrolling them at Korean University in a responsible manner, and at the same time pay close attention to increasing the number of children at our kindergartens and running and expanding the para-regular education network.

The Korean Educationists Association in Japan and its other organizations, affiliates and other bodies at all levels should stake national pride and make strenuous efforts to create for the children of compatriots educational conditions and environment which are no inferior to others.

By regarding national education as the top priority of their patriotic undertakings and consistently conducting the movement of taking loving care of and helping schools, not only the Mothers’ Society and Fathers’ Society but also all the organizations under Chongryon should ensure that the validity and vitality of national education are fully demonstrated.

It is important to further improve the work of Korean University, in particular.

Korean University is the highest institute of democratic national education and the sole university of overseas people in the world, which the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il established and valued so dearly.

It should bring up more and better dependable hard-core persons who can shoulder the future of Chongryon’s patriotic cause, thereby firmly guaranteeing the future of the movement of Koreans in Japan.

No matter where they work and at what, Chongryon officials and other compatriots should cherish the university in their minds and give active material and spiritual assistance to the work of training successors to Chongryon.

The third task facing Chongryon is to raise a strong wind of preserving the national identity of the Korean community in Japan.

The people at home should be strong in national identity, but it is all the more so with overseas compatriots.

The first criterion for characterizing a nation is its lineage and the second one is language.

For the compatriots living in an alien land far away from their motherland, the true feature as a patriot finds expression in safeguarding the lineage of the nation and the time of speaking their mother tongue is the time when they live a patriotic life.

Mindful of the fact that encouraging the compatriots to enjoy using our language, both written and spoken, which is a means of linking the ties of kinship among them, is the starting point, the first step, of preserving their national identity, Chongryon should ensure that our beautiful and excellent language resounds in its organizations, affiliates, schools, homes and all other places across the Korean community.

It should also pay close attention to ensuring the excellent traditions, culture and customs of our nation are continuously inherited.

The publishing and information institutes of Chongryon should not spare time and space in giving publicity to the time-honoured history, brilliant cultural legacy, homogeneous lineage and ennobling manners and customs of our nation.

The younger generations of Chongryon should be encouraged to carry on the strong temperament and good manners and customs of the Korean nation in their pure form. By doing so, they can maintain the strong sense of unity and pioneering as well as hatred for injustice, while respecting their elders, promoting harmony in their neighbourhoods and taking loving care of their parents and spouses and children.

It is necessary positively to encourage the families to prepare national foods on traditional holidays and help our schools to give their students good lessons on how to make Korean garments and dishes, particularly kimchi, while stimulating the operation of national music and dance circles.

The compatriots should be encouraged to love our traditional costumes and enjoy wearing them.

Chima and jogori (traditional Korean skirt and jacket) stand for the symbol of our nation, which signals the Korean nationality overseas even without any national flag on it.

It should be made one of good traits and practices in the Korean community for women and girl students of our schools to wear chima and jogori.

Chongryon should conduct a more intense campaign, involving all its organizations and all the compatriots, to preserve their national identity so that the Koreans in Japan will continue to be under the limelight as the reflection of Korea, as the face of our nation, who are never assimilated by foreign culture even if they live in an alien land through generations.

The fourth task facing Chongryon is to render a unique contribution to the effort for independent reunification of the country and its socialist construction as required by the era of the our-state-first principle.

This is a new era of self-respect and prosperity, when our Republic has put the nation’s dignity and position up to an unprecedentedly high level by overcoming every manner of challenge of history.

Cherishing the pride and honour of being DPRK citizens living in this era, Chongryon organizations at all levels and compatriots in Japan should turn out in the patriotic effort for national reunification and comprehensive development of their homeland.

National reunification is the supreme task of the nation that brooks no further delay; it is the most important patriotic undertaking for Chongryon and the compatriots in Japan.

Chongryon’s engagement in the effort for national reunification is, in essence, a sacred patriotic struggle to support and implement the one-Korea line which the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il put forth and pursued.

Chongryon and the compatriots in Japan should offer positive support for the national reunification lines and policies of our Party and the government of our Republic and give wide publicity to them.

It should improve the effort for unity with the compatriots, who are living outside its organizations, including those of Mindan (Federation of Koreans Resident in Japan), under the banner of great national unity so as to build up the patriotic forces for reunification and conduct energetic joint actions and struggle with them.

By forging close national ties and contacts with organizations of our compatriots overseas, it should assume and play the role of the main axis overseas in shaping a pan-national united front.

It should give active support and encouragement to the south Korean people in their righteous struggle for independence, democracy and national reunification, while waging a strenuous struggle to denounce and foil the separatist schemes of the United States and the south Korean belligerents.

At the moment our country has entered the period of comprehensive development of its socialist construction.

It is the proud reality of our country that it is transforming itself day and month.

Chongryon and the compatriots in Japan should staunchly defend their socialist homeland and make a tangible contribution to the building of a civilized and prosperous country.

The Koreans resident in Japan should always live with the affection of their homeland even if they live in the alien land, and prepare themselves as absolute supporters and stout champions of their socialist homeland.

Over the protracted period from the beginning of nation building to date our people have been cornerstones and beams in the building of our Republic. Among the images of these indomitable people are also those of the compatriots in Japan.

Chongryon and the compatriots in Japan should offer characteristic services for the building of a powerful socialist country by carrying on the proud tradition of contributing to the country’s prosperity.

Chongryon should work positively to create a favourable international environment for the revolutionary cause of Juche and the patriotic cause of its own.

The main task facing Chongryon in its foreign activities at the moment is to ensure peace and stability of its own and the community of the Koreans resident in Japan by steadily increasing the number of our supporters and sympathizers among the peoples of different countries of the world, including Japan, under the ideals of independence, peace and friendship.

It should work with personages from different strata of Japan in a flexible manner and adopt a more scrupulous way in working with the democratic forces and solidarity organizations that support our nation’s reunification. In this way it can steadily increase the number of supporters of and sympathizers with our Republic and Chongryon among broader sections of the Japanese people.

Chongryon organizations and other bodies at all levels should pay due attention to the external activities in their regions to ensure that the local autonomous bodies actively support and cooperate with the activities of Chongryon for championing the democratic national rights and interests of the compatriots in Japan.

Chongryon should carefully conduct activities with foreign missions in Japan and actively advance to the international arena to staunchly defend the national interests of our Republic and make sure that the voices of support and approval for the patriotic activities of the Chongryon organization and compatriots in Japan are amplified.

In order to successfully carry out the important fighting tasks to usher in a new era of its rejuvenation, it should further strengthen itself organizationally and ideologically in line with the requirements of the changed environment and times.

First of all, it should hold fast to the ideological theory of Juche and put primary effort to the ideological education for doubling the motive force of advance of the movement of Koreans in Japan.

The only shortcut to the new era of Chongryon’s rejuvenation is to move compatriots in one direction and enlist their spiritual strength to the maximum.

Education in the greatness of Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, education in patriotism, education in the Korean-nation-first spirit, education in the history and tradition of the movement of Koreans in Japan and education in the revolutionary faith constitute the main contents of the ideological work of Chongryon.

Chongryon should further intensify education in the greatness of Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il among the compatriots including the new generations so that their immortal ideas and history of their benevolent love would go down generation after generation even in the alien land far away from their homeland.

Ideological education should be provided effectively without neglecting any element of its contents; education in the greatness of Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il should be offered together with education in patriotism and the revolutionary faith, and education in the Korean-nation-first spirit should be conducted together with the education in the history and traditions of the movement of Koreans in Japan.

It is particularly important to give education in patriotism effectively in close combination with the our-state-first principle.

Chongryon organizations and bodies at all levels should make it a tradition to hold the national flag hoisting ceremony as suited to their specific conditions on such occasions as the greatest national holidays, the anniversary of the founding of the Republic and that of Chongryon.

Schools at all levels should also intensify education in the symbols of our state and offer students opportunities to hoist the national flag by themselves while singing Patriotic Song on various occasions including the entrance and graduation ceremonies so that they always link their precious dreams with the socialist motherland.

There can never be any fixed methods or omnipotent formula in the information and cultural activities of Chongryon, which are conducted in capitalist Japan.

Chongryon should root out formalism in its ideological work and continuously explore and apply methods of education, which the compatriots respond to and which they sympathize with.

It is important to steadily enhance the capability of penetration and attraction of publications and other information materials.

The Joson Sinbo Company and the Korean News Service should work to promptly inform more of the compatriots of news about the homeland and the compatriots in Japan through newspaper and website and spread our culture uninterruptedly.

The Union of Korean Writers and Artists in Japan, the Kumgangsan Opera Troupe and other institutions and art organizations in charge of information and culture should further enhance their functions and role, and local song and dance troupes should give performances and vigorously conduct all kinds of literary and artistic group activities to make the Korean community alive with our songs, our tunes and our dances.

Next, the Chongryon Central Standing Committee, its organizations, affiliates and bodies at all levels should be consolidated as firmly as a fortress of single-minded unity and reliable citadel stones of patriotism.

This means making Chongryon an impregnable fortress that resolutely defends the socialist homeland and the life and happiness of compatriots from any external attack and abuse.

It is imperative to improve the leadership abilities of the Central Standing Committee of Chongryon, the general staff of the movement of Koreans in Japan, in every way.

The committee should adhere to it as its lifeblood to establish the Juche-based ideological and leadership system in itself and organize and conduct all work and activities strictly according to the lifetime instructions of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

It should intensify policy-oriented guidance over its organizations, affiliates and bodies at all levels and direct particular efforts to its internal work to promote the single-minded unity of its ranks and ensure that the lineage of its hardcore is carried on generation after generation.　　

Its prefectural headquarters should steadily raise their own organizing, controlling and executive abilities.

They are regional guidance units for the movement of Koreans in Japan and regional assistant units of the Central Standing Committee of Chongryon.

They should establish a more effective system of work with their subordinate units and lead and help them on a regular basis so as to make sure that the decisions and instructions of the Central Standing Committee bear good fruit.

The work to reduce regional variations of the headquarters should be conducted purposefully and consciously to create a new situation in which small and medium-scale headquarters rise up and exert their full strength.

They should hold fast to the idea of attaching importance to branches and chapters, and develop and strengthen all the grassroots organizations into living ones that fully display the spirit of love for the country and nation.

The branches should be turned into those firmly based on the compatriots of all social standings, the ones that are run by hard-core compatriots as the driving force.

They should further increase their activity by positively enlisting part-time officials and conduct an emulation drive among themselves in a sustained way so that all of them can perform their mission as the units that actually implement the decisions of the congress.

Only when the chapter, the basic unit of living and lowest-echelon organization of the compatriots, demonstrates its strength can all the organizations of Chongryon be strengthened and everything can go smoothly in the compatriots’ community.

The most ideal target of chapter building is to turn it into a harmonious compatriots’ community, in which everyone is firmly united based on the great truth, sharing warm human feeling.

Chongryon should attach importance to the conference of chapters as much as its congress, and intensify the work of raising the political awareness of their officials so as to turn all the chapters into sound and vigorous organizations.

All the chapters should constantly adhere to the four major tasks for strengthening themselves, and consistently wage the patriotic creative movement so that all parts where the compatriots live are continuously afire with enthusiasm for harmony and unity and love for the country and nation.

It is also necessary to further increase the fighting efficiency of Chongryon’s mass organizations of all strata.

The prosperity of Chongryon and thriving community of compatriots are inconceivable separated from the deep sincerity and patriotism of the Korean businesspeople, young people and women who unstintingly dedicate all their precious things solely for the sake of their country and nation, despite the heavy burden of their own trade and support for their own existence in capitalist Japan.

The mass organizations of Chongryon, always being conscious of their duty as those for ideological education, should lead all their members to steadily carry on the ennobling spirit displayed by the preceding generations and conduct vigorous mass drives that reflect the aspirations and demands of compatriots, and in the course of this build up their own ranks in every way possible.

Korean businesspeople were and are invariably basic sections of the masses under Chongryon and the main force in the movement of Koreans in Japan.

The Federation of Commerce of Korean Men in Japan and other economic organizations should take positive measures to protect and reenergize the enterprises of the Korean businesspeople and sensitively grasp the global trend in economic development and raise the level of specialization so as to help make the compatriots’ business activities profitable.

The Association of Korean Young Men of Commerce in Japan was formed by General Kim Jong Il and is the reserve of the main force of the movement of Koreans in Japan comprising young businesspeople and the generation of students’ parents.

The association should uphold as the basic seed, the eternal theme, of its movement the slogans “For an affluent community of compatriots!” and “For the future of the flower buds!” it put forward in the days of its formation.

It should bear in mind every minute and every second that the bright and cheerful looks of Korean schoolchildren in Japan who go to Korean schools in new uniforms reflect the future of Chongryon, and keep taking the lead in supporting national education.

Young people should naturally hold up the banner of vanguard and shock brigade in the honourable advance towards a new era of rejuvenation of Chongryon.

The Korean Youth League in Japan should vigorously conduct various mass movements that suit the psychology of young compatriots with stress put on enhancing the independence and individuality of its organizations at all levels so as to make the community of compatriots replete with youthful enthusiasm, the spirit of the new generation.

The Union of Korean Students in Japan, too, should steadily conduct the work with Korean students attending Japanese universities so as to lead them to live with the soul of Korea, the spirit of the nation.

The Union of Democratic Korean Women in Japan is the largest mass organization under Chongryon, which represents the rights and interests of all the Korean women resident in Japan.

The first teachers who implant the feeling of love for the country and foster national dignity in the Korean children in Japan are just the women compatriots, and the gardeners who tend the flower garden of national education with greatest care to defend the beautiful dreams of Korean children are also none other than them.

Women’s union organizations at all levels should conduct all patriotic activities with our schools as the bases and contribute a large share to making the community of our compatriots in Japan a large harmonious family with a strong national character and full of animation.

The women’s union should positively put forward young women who have been trained in the practical patriotic work to make them push one of the two wheels of the movement of Koreans in Japan staunchly through generations.

Next, a radical change should be effected in the method and style of work of Chongryon officials, the commanding personnel of the movement of Koreans in Japan.

Chongryon officials are career political workers who embarked on the road of patriotism by shouldering the destiny of their compatriots of their own accord and overseas revolutionary comrades that our motherland treasures most and pays high tribute to.

Our motherland has fully entrusted them with the dignity and destiny of Koreans in Japan, and expects that all its officials would perform the mission and duty assigned by the country and nation with an extraordinary resolution and passion.

All the officials of Chongryon should put much effort into the work with compatriots from all walks of life and do it well with a correct mass viewpoint.

They should regard the masses of compatriots as the most precious and powerful beings, hold them as sacred as God, always go deep among them and work by relying on them with a belief in their strength.

They should make a habit of seeking solutions to problems as they sit knee to knee with compatriots as if they discuss family affairs with their kith and kin while always finding themselves among the fellow countrymen, and of settling all affairs by enlisting their spiritual strength.

They should understand the feelings of the compatriots in the areas under their control and find out methods of work appropriate to them so as to conduct the work with them in a novel way.

They should hold their compatriots in great esteem, and should never deviate from their original aim as they reflect on themselves by mirroring themselves on the masses of the fellow countrymen.

All the officials of Chongryon should hold higher the slogan “Let us make selfless, devoted efforts for the good of compatriots!” and become sincere and industrious servants who give all their soul and mind to the happy life and welfare of compatriots.

The burning love for and devotion to the compatriots and the warm affection shared between the officials and compatriots are just the strength of Chongryon.

Its officials should not make light of any one of the demands of the compatriots, even if they number a hundred or a thousand, and should constantly strive to meet all their demands at the highest possible level.

They should become filial children for the compatriots who are living a lonely life, intimate siblings to those who are suffering distress in life, a breeze to those who are feeling hot and a campfire to those who are feeling cold.

They should care more for compatriots in difficulty, go nearer to those with a warped mind to address what makes their life uncomfortable and relieve them of ill feelings, and lead them along the road of love for the country and nation, embracing all the fellow countrymen with great personality and remarkable magnanimity.

All the officials of Chongryon should keep deep in mind the earnest request of the homeland which is eager to realize all the dreams and ideals of our compatriots, and dash forward more vigorously towards a fresh victory in the movement of Koreans in Japan with the warmest love for the compatriots and the spirit of devoted service for them.

It is the eternal policy of our Republic to attach importance to Chongryon and overseas compatriots.

Our Party and the government of the Republic will hold dearest and protect in every way Chongryon, the legacy of love for the country left by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and devote special affection to it so as to make the song Love of the Homeland Is Warm reverberate for ever along with the history of the Juche-oriented movement of overseas Koreans.

Firmly believing that all the participants in the 25th Congress of Chongryon would work with redoubled courage for our precious compatriots and our dear younger generations, by following the brilliant plan for the rejuvenation of Chongryon, I hope that the congress will become a milestone for a great change in advancing towards a higher goal of a new heyday in the movement of Koreans in Japan.