Legendary Guerrilla Army Commander

Legendary Guerrilla Army Commander
Kim Il Sung, founding father of socialist Korea, led the Korean people’s armed struggle against Japanese imperialism to liberate their lost country. The struggle is recorded in history as a legendary guerrilla warfare, as it was waged for 15 years with no state to back it from the rear or support from a regular army.

Kim Il Sung put forward the line of liberating the country by force of arms and entirely by the efforts of the Korean people themselves. As instructed by him, Korean revolutionaries armed themselves with the weapons they wrested from the Japanese army and police.
On the basis of such preparations Kim Il Sung founded the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army in Antu County, Northeast China, on April 25, 1932. The world history records no guerrilla warfare fought for 15 years, and that against an imperialist power, armed to the teeth, and under constant threat of the dearth of materials such as food, shoes, salt and matches and the bitter cold of the continent.
        The Arduous March, which took over 100 days from December 1938, shows well how harsh the anti-Japanese war was. Biting cold of 40 degrees below zero, the heaviest snowfall in 100 years, scores of battles a day—these were great ordeals beyond the physical limitation for the Korean guerrillas who had started the march, breaking through the encirclement of the enemy over tens of thousands strong. The Japanese imperialists, though they had not enough troops for the vast Chinese front, decided to annihilate the Korean army at any cost. They deployed troops in places of strategic importance and kept on pursuing the  Korean guerrilla army by replacing one unit after another. The enemy was everywhere—in the front, at the back and by sides. Severe cold, hunger and extreme fatigue were also enemies for the guerrillas. Having learned that the guerrillas were severely suffering from lack of salt the Japanese imperialists  made poisoned salt delivered to the guerrillas. However, under the wise leadership of Kim Il Sung the guerillas dealt hard blows to the enemy overcoming all difficulties and wound up the march victoriously and advanced to their homeland again.
Kim Il Sung gained one victory after another in battles by applying protean tactics. The strength between the Korean guerrilla army and the Japanese Kwantung Army, which called itself as one of five military powers of the world, was beyond comparison in the light of the established common sense as the latter was a million strong and equipped with modern military hardware such as airplanes, tanks and artilleries.

But Kim Il Sung always shattered the numerical and technical superiority of the enemy by strategic and tactical superiority. A battle waged on a tableland during the Arduous March was a typical example. The unit commanded by him was circling the tableland of one day’s walk with the enemy in the rear. Suddenly another enemy unit appeared between them. Seeing that darkness had already settled on the snow-covered forest and the enemy units were tenaciously pursuing, he ordered his unit to sneak aside. Not knowing this, the enemy units circled the tableland until they encountered, and fought fiercely against each other, leaving many dead. When they realized that they fought among themselves they were greatly perplexed.
Top generals and “punitive” experts of the Japanese army were powerless before the anti-Japanese guerrilla army led by Kim Il Sung and bit the dust. The Japanese army was always caught in his outstanding tactics. They named his tactic of allurement and ambush the “net tactic.” “Don’t be caught in Kim Il Sung’s net”—this was a vogue phrase among them.
Guerrilla tactics employed by him gave birth to many legendary tales—that he uses the art of contracting distance, he disappears into the sky and earth and that he crosses a river by help of a sheet of paper—inspiring the Korean people with confidence in victory but striking horror to the enemy.
The guerrilla struggle led by him was well-known to the world, as well. Already before the liberation of Korea (August 15, 1945) a US diplomatic document said that the Korean communist army (army led by Kim Il Sung) might sweep the Korean peninsula in the near future. An American professor said that Manchuria had been the central battlefield of the Pacific war and resistance led by General Kim Il Sung had been a major cause for the frustration of the military expansion of Japan afterwards.
At last Kim Il Sung achieved the historic cause of national liberation on August 15, 1945. His greatness as a legendary guerrilla army commander will go down in history for ever.