Date: Berlin, June 1, 1984.
Source: "Speech of Comrade Erich Honecker at the
Banquet Given by Comrade Kim Il Sung",
in Everlasting Fraternal Friendship. The Great Leader Kim Il Sung's Official
Goodwill Visits to the Soviet Union and Other European Socialist Countries (Foreign
Languages Press, Pyongyang, 1984), pages 66-68.
Esteemed Comrade Kim II Sung,
Dear Korean comrades and friends,
To begin with, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you, esteemed Comrade Kim II Sung, for your kind invitation to the banquet and for your high appreciation of the success made by our people and of the revolutionary enthusiasm and creative ability of our working people.
Visiting our country this year which marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of the GDR, you must have seen for yourself how our people live and the social changes that have been brought about by socialism.
You must have been able to get to know better the development of our national economy and the level of development of our science, technology and culture. You must have felt in all this and through meetings with our people how deeply the friendly sentiments towards the DPRK are rooted in the minds of our people.
We have had sincere and candid talks and agreed in affirming that the current meeting between us would not only revitalize cooperation in the future in the interests of the peoples of our two countries, but also encourage our joint struggle for peace and against the danger of nuclear holocaust.
We are of the same opinion that the present international situation which has become aggravated owing to the manoeuvres for confrontation and armament expansion by the most aggressive forces of imperialism, the US in particular, requires more urgently than ever that all the people rise in the struggle for peace.
The US imperialists are making frantic efforts to achieve their wild ambition for world supremacy in all areas, including Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, the Indian Ocean and Africa.
They continue to deploy more new-type missiles and nuclear weapons and expand the network of military bases around the Soviet Union and socialist states in Asia in an effort to turn the balance of military forces in these regions in their favour.
South Korea plays a special role in such manoeuvres of the US imperialists as a bridgehead for their military operation against the Asian continent.
The might of the socialist countries serves as a firm guarantee for defending socialism from all attacks by the enemy. We have always ensured and will certainly ensure as always the work of defending socialism on a proper level.
Dear comrades and friends,
The GDR visit of Comrade Kim II Sung, our friend and comrade- in-arms, has been a good opportunity of exchanging views on the international political situation, informing each other of socialist con¬struction in our two countries and sharing experience with each other.
We have also been able to sum up how our agreements in December 1977 on the relations between our two states have been implemented and to exchange proposals and views for the development of our relations in the future.
The development of relations between the two countries is expressed in the GDR-DPRK Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation which we signed today. The signing of this treaty has produced a great response in the GDR, and opened a new phase in the relations between our two countries.
Through the implementation of this treaty, our two states will contribute greatly to strengthening unity and solidarity of the socialist countries.
At the same time, this treaty is an effective guarantee for a comprehensive and direct exchange of experiences related to the im-plementation of Party congress decisions in the fields of politics, the economy, science, technology, and culture. It can also be considered to be a good basis for the common struggle for peace and socialism. Respected Comrade Kim II Sung,
We think that your present visit to the GDR is a good expression of dependable internationalist friendship and militant cooperation between our two Parties and two countries and two peoples.
We reaffirm that the GDR people will stand firm in the future, too, by the Korean people who are struggling for peace and socialist construction and for peaceful and democratic national reunification free from foreign interference.
We hope that, once you are back home, you will convey the fraternal and militant greetings of the GDR communists and entire people to all the communists and friends in the DPRK and to the rest of the heroic Korean people.
We will do all we can to further strengthen socialism and defend peace on the solid basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
We wish you many excellent successes in your forthcoming visits to other socialist countries and wish the entire Korean people good success.
In conclusion, I would like to propose a toast to the unbreakable, militant fraternity between the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and the Workers’ Party of Korea, to the invincible friendship between the GDR and DPRK peoples, to new and great victory in the joint cause of peace and socialism, to the long life in good health of esteemed Comrade Kim II Sung, and to the health of all the Korean comrades present here.