June 03, 2023
Evergreen

The 1967 speech that set North Korean totalitarianism in stone

Today marks 50 years since a speech by Kim Il Sung which would define the DPRK forever

Thursday, the 25 May 1967 was an ordinary day for most countries. In the United States, President Lyndon Johnson met with Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The Vatican, then under Pope Paul VI, published new instructions “On Eucharistic Worship”. In the UK, John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls-Royce was delivered after a redesign. 

And in North Korea, Kim Il Sung delivered a speech. It was, of course, authored by him, and it was named “On the Immediate Tasks in the Direction of the Party’s Propaganda Work”.