On the occasion of the 75th birth anniversary of the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, the army and people of the DPRK recollect with deep emotion the immortal feats he had performed to ensure peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the world.

The great leader staunchly safeguarded peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the world by taming the unprecedented thunders and storms of history with the Songun politics and nuclear deterrent. His immortal feats have been and will forever be the guarantee for peace and prosperity in the Korean peninsula and the world.

1. To Prevent War on the Korean Peninsula

Respected Supreme Leader Comrade Kim Jong Un, in his report to the Seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea on the work of the Central Committee, stated that at present various parts of the world were still being devastated by war but the gunfire of war had not been heard in the DPRK for several decades and our people were leading a peaceful and stable life, free from war. He appraised that it was thanks entirely to the Songun politics of the great leader and herein lay the greatest achievement of the Party.

With the collapse of socialist systems in the former Soviet Union and other east European countries in 1990s, major changes followed in the world political structure and the balance of forces. Assuming itself as the world's "only superpower", the U.S. became high-handed and arbitrary in the international arena and pursued all the more vicious schemes of aggression and war infringing upon the sovereignty of other nations to realize its ambition of world supremacy.

The U.S. concentrated its offensive spearhead on the DPRK which held high the banner of independence and socialism. While unprecedentedly intensifying military aggressive maneuvers to stifle the DPRK, the U.S. and its vassal forces continued to press and suffocate the DPRK in all fields including politics, the economy, ideology, culture and diplomacy.

The Korean peninsula had already turned into the hottest spot clouded with increasing danger of nuclear war in the world due to continuous war maneuvers of the U.S. Thus preventing war and defending peace on the peninsula was the pressing issue in ensuring peace and security of the world.

Endowed with noble sense of mission to safeguard the destiny of the nation and peace and security of the world, the great leader firmly maintained the Songun-based revolutionary line, an ever-victorious path of the Korean revolution, and administered the Songun politics in an all-round way.

Thanks to the iron will of the great leader to enhance defense capabilities at any cost and his energetic guidance, the DPRK's defense industry had developed into a powerful one for self-defense.

The strong defense capability provided under the Songun politics was a guarantee that made it possible to firmly defend our national security and socialist fortress by crushing the aggressive maneuvers of the imperialists.

It was the unswerving will of the great leader to crush the imperialists' outrageous pressure and challenges through tougher countermeasures of wielding a sword when the enemy were drawing a knife and leveling a cannon when they were pointing a gun.

The DPRK thoroughly crushed growing military pressure and aggressive maneuvers of the U.S. and its vassal forces with the powerful military might strengthened by the great leader.

In 1993 the U.S. resumed "Team Spirit" joint military exercises involving more than 200 000 aggression troops, thus creating a highly touch-and-go situation of nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula. The great leader frustrated the U.S. aggressive ambition with decisive measures of declaring a semi-war state and withdrawal from the NPT.

In April 1996 the Korean People's Army (KPA) under the commandership of the great leader physically pacified the reckless maneuvers of the U.S. and south Korean military war maniacs who aggravated tension to the extreme by bringing in heavy weaponry into the DMZ in wanton violation of the Armistice Agreement.

At the end of 1998 when the U.S. made public the details of "OPLAN 5027", a plan for preemptive strike against the DPRK, the KPA made an announcement that no provokers in the planet would be pardoned from its strike and demonstrated practical military capability, thus crushing the enemies' aggressive intention.

Such being the case, in 1999, the U.S., engaged in war against Yugoslavia and bombing the embassy of a sovereign state, sent Perry, former defense secretary, as the U.S. presidential envoy to the DPRK and claimed an engagement policy. Afterwards, the DPRK and the U.S. maintained contacts and cooperation in several sectors to establish new relations free from past hostilities.

However, the Bush administration that emerged later unilaterally scrapped the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework and designated the DPRK as an "axis of evil" at the Union Address on January 30, 2002. In March the same year, the U.S. announced a "nuclear posture review" that included the DPRK in the list of targets of its nuclear preemptive strike. The U.S. went on to gradually intensify nuclear war exercises against the DPRK.

The DPRK and the Korean nation were exposed to the danger of grave nuclear catastrophe. The increasing nuclear threat from the U.S., the world biggest nuclear possessor and the only nuclear weapons user, kept pushing the DPRK to nuclear possession.

To address the grave situation, the great leader made strategic decision to cope the nuke with the nuke.

Accordingly, on January 10, 2003, the DPRK government took a decisive defense measure as to effectuate withdrawal from NPT that had been on hold for 10 years. 3 years later, in October 2006, the DPRK carried out its first nuclear test followed by a second one in May 2009.

This ended the nuclear imbalance in Northeast Asia which was full of nuclear weapons and nuclear umbrella but the DPRK remained the only nuclear vacuum. Owing to the deterrent impact of the DPRK's nuclear possession, the danger of war on the Korean peninsula had significantly decreased.

The great leader reliably defended peace and security of the peninsula and the world by strengthening the defense capability with the nuclear deterrent as its pivot and crushing every war provocations of the U.S.

If the DPRK had yielded to the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail, the tragedies of Iraq and Libya would have taken place on the Korean Peninsula and the world's current biggest nightmare of refugees would have happened in Northeast Asia as well.

The undying feats the great leader performed to prevent war on the Korean peninsula and defend peace and security of the world with the might of the Songun politics and nuclear deterrent will forever shine with the history.

2 To Ensure Durable Peace System

There is no peace mechanism on the Korean peninsula which is at the centre of very sensitive Northeast Asia where nuclear states are confronting each other.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il wisely led the DPRK government to advance reasonable and practical proposals for ensuring durable peace on the Korean peninsula and the region and make consistent efforts for their materialization.

The DPRK government has made strenuous efforts to ensure solid peace mechanism in the Korean Peninsula. These efforts include the proposal to sign DPRK-U.S. peace treaty made in March 1974, the proposal to establish a new peace-keeping mechanism to prevent war and guarantee solid peace on the Korean peninsula made in April 1994, and the proposal to sign DPRK-U.S. interim agreement, a more concrete proposal, made in February 1996.

In his historic August 4, 1997, work "Let Us Carry Out the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung's Instructions for National Reunification", the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il clarified the principle stand to reunify the country in a peaceful way without use of armed forces. He stated that, to ensure peaceful reunification, the U.S. should abandon hostile policy towards the DPRK and a new peace mechanism should be established on the Korean peninsula through DPRK-U.S. peace treaty.

During the visit to the U.S. by his special envoy in October 2000, a Joint Communique was adopted. In the Joint Communique the DPRK and the U.S. agreed that there are a variety of available means to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula and formally end the Korean War by replacing the Armistice Agreement with permanent peace arrangements.

The DPRK government was actively engaged in multilateral talks including 4-party and 6-party talks and took sincere attitude toward the discussion of issues related with ensuring peace and security of the Korean peninsula.

The great leader wisely led the efforts to promote national reunification by concerted efforts of the north and the south and ensure peace and security of the Korean peninsula.

Thanks to his great ideas for national reunification and peace mechanism, the inter-Korean contact and cooperation in various fields were active which finally led to the adoption of June 15 Joint Declaration at the historic north-south summit meeting in 2000. The Declaration is a reunification program common to the Korean nation for ensuring peace and realizing reunification by the Koreans themselves.

Thereafter, the north and the south adopted and implemented an agreement to prevent accidental collision on the West Sea and end propaganda and remove relevant means along the Military Demarcation Line, which resulted in the brisk inter-Korean cooperation in all fields including politics, the economy and culture.

The October 4 Declaration adopted at the historic north-south summit meeting in 2007 proclaimed that the north and the south shared the need to end the existing armistice mechanism and build a durable peace mechanism and agreed to cooperate in arranging the summit meeting of three or four relevant parties in the Korean Peninsula to announce the end of the war.

However, the DPRK-U.S. and inter-Korean relations turned towards catastrophe by the Obama administration and the south Korean anti-reunification forces and the danger of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula kept increasing.

The reality more clearly proves the validity and vitality of the DPRK's proposals for peace mechanism and the historic inter-Korean agreements.

3. To Honor the Feats of the Great Leader

Today respected Supreme Leader Comrade Kim Jong Un adds light to the immortal feats of the great leader for peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the world.

In 2011 when the Koreans suffered a great national loss with the untimely passing away of the great leader, the Obama administration viewed it as a golden opportunity to stifle the DPRK and intensified military pressure on the DPRK, while initiating Asia Pacific Pivot Policy.

The U.S. designated the DPRK as its first attack target and moved massively the armed forces that had been deployed in the U.S. mainland, Europe and Middle East into around the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. is increasing the scale and frequency of the U.S.-south Korea joint military exercises by introducing more strategic assets, including strategic bombers, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, into the Korean Peninsula. The aggressive nature and content of the joint military exercises become more rampant with high-profile operations like "Pyongyang occupation", "precision strike", "decapitation operation", etc.

In addition, the U.S. has staged trilateral naval exercises annually that involve the U.S., Japan and south Korea since 2012 and decided to deploy THAAD in south Korea so as to contain Russia and China. These moves made, all the more acute, the strategic confrontation of nuclear states around the Korean Peninsula.

It is none other than respected Supreme Leader Comrade Kim Jong Un who firmly defended the sovereignty of the DPRK and peace and security of the world from the rigorous whirlpool of the history.

Based on scientific analysis of the situation in Asia Pacific, he prevented nuclear war by advancing a new strategic line of simultaneous development of the economy and the nuclear forces and by taking the toughest countermeasures of strengthening nuclear forces.

In 2016 alone, he strengthened the nuclear forces at a high speed beyond imagination with successive achievements including the H-bomb test, test launches of various striking means and nuclear warhead explosion test. These measures aimed at defending peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and the region clearly manifested the iron will of the DPRK fully prepared to take counter measures if the enemies dared to provoke it.

The U.S. dares not to provoke a war against the DPRK despite its bragging about strong military capability. This is because the U.S. is apprehensive of the strong nuclear deterrent of the DPRK which is fully capable to make preemptive nuclear strike with standardized warheads and diversified delivery means against the aggressive forces deployed in the U.S. mainland and Pacific operation theatre.

The respected Supreme Leader has wisely led the efforts to prevent war and ensure durable peace on the Korean peninsula.

When a touch-and-go situation was created along the Military Demarcation Line in August 2015, he led the DPRK to put under control the crisis by initiating a proposal for north-south high-level urgent contact, thereby clearing the dark clouds of war that hung over the Korean nation and defending peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and the region.

The peace restored under the situation that reached the brink of a war was by no means something achieved on the negotiating table but thanks to the tremendous military muscle based on the defensive nuclear deterrent, developed by the great leader and strengthened by the respected Supreme Leader, and to the invincible might of single-minded unity of the army and people around the Party.

In his report to the Seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea on the work of the Central Committee, the respected Supreme Leader stated that the U.S. should squarely see the strategic position of the DPRK that has joined the front ranks of nuclear powers and the trend of the times and scrap its anachronistic policy of hostility towards the DPRK, replace the Armistice Agreement with a peace treaty and withdraw its aggressive forces and war equipment from south Korea.

In his New Year Address for this year, he stressed that positive measures should be taken to improve inter-Korean relations and remove the acute military confrontation and the danger of war between the north and the south.

Now that the DPRK has consolidated its tremendous military muscle and the improvement of inter-Korean relations and national reunification have become a mature and pressing demand of the times, the U.S. and neighboring countries should respect the DPRK's strategic status and will for independent reunification and change their policies accordingly. This would be the practical way for ensuring durable peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in the region.

As long as the immortal feats performed by the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il shines forever and the DPRK is wisely guided by respected Supreme Leader Comrade Kim Jong Un, the DPRK will defend its own peace and security by its own strength and make positive contribution to preserving the global peace and stability.