UN General Assembly
1997

annually increased military expenditures amid the tense situation in the Korean peninsula. In addition to the military pressures, which have continued since the cold war era, issues such as human rights, terrorism, economic sanctions, food aid and so on are also being abused as tools for high- handedness and interference in our internal affairs. All these attempts are aimed at stifling our socialist system. Like all other United Nations Member States, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a sovereign State with the right to choose its own political system, and it deserves respect for this. Our style of socialism is the one our people have chosen by themselves, and it is not a system doomed to collapse even though others may attempt to bring this about. The single-hearted unity between the leader, the party and the masses is the source of the invincibility of our system. On 8 July this year, which marked the third year of the demise of the great leader President Kim Il Sung, all our people became mourners and observed the memorial