Blizzards of Paektu

Recently in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the words the revolutionary spirit of Paektu and the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu are very popular, and the enthusiasm to climb Mt Paektu is mounting higher.

Then, what attracts the Koreans to Mt Paektu?

Mt Paektu, Sacred Mountain of the Korean Revolution

Paektu, situated in the northern border area of the DPRK, is the highest and most imposing mountain in the country. From olden times, the Korean people have worshipped it as the ancestral mountain that is enshrined with their time-honoured history and the soul of the resourceful nation.

This is not the only reason why the mountain is so famous.

It has become all the more famous as a heroic mountain and the sacred mountain of the Korean revolution that has left an indelible trace in the contemporary history of Korea. President Kim Il Sung, who opened the era of independence, a new era of human history by authoring the Juche idea and the Songun idea, waged the legendary guerrilla warfare in the area centred on the mountain in the first half of the 20^th century and wiped out the Japanese aggressors, thus achieving the cause of national liberation. It is also the native place of Kim Jong Il, the eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, who achieved one victory after another in the war to defend socialism, an anti-US showdown, by dint of original Songun politics, in the period between the late 20^th century and the early 21^st century.

Preserved on the mountain are trees bearing slogans and historical relics that show the achievements of President Kim Il Sung and the soul of the anti-Japanese fighters, as well as Chairman Kim Jong Il’s native home in the Paektusan Secret Camp where he spent his childhood and the peak named after him.

Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are praised as the great men of Mt Paektu and the revolutionary battle sites in the area have turned into bases for education in the revolutionary traditions that provide service personnel and people with spiritual sustenance and temper their revolutionary faith and will.

Spirit of the Blizzards of Paektu

At dawn on April 18, 2015, Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of the DPRK, climbed the mountain. Standing on its summit against a wind blowing at 25 metres per second, he enjoyed the majestic sunrise. This instantly drew the attention of world mass media.

Saying that only when one experiences the blizzards of the mountain, can one experience the mountain’s true character and harden one’s determination to accomplish the Korean revolution, Kim Jong Un noted that the road to the mountain is a road to obtaining spiritual sustenance incomparably more valuable than the might of nuclear weapons, a road to adding brilliance to the revolutionary traditions of Paektu, and a road to stoutly carrying forward the lifeline of the Korean revolution resplendent with glory. That day he had a photograph taken with the fighter pilots of the Korean People’s Army on the summit.

Then what is the meaning of Kim Jong Un’s climbing of the mountain?

One should find the answer from the blizzards of the mountain he exposed himself to with pleasure.

The snowstorm on Paektu is, in the true sense of the word, blizzards, a rush of icy snow sweeping the earth and sky.

Braving these blizzards, the Korean guerillas fought against the Japanese imperialists marching against the blizzards. Their death-defying will, their unyielding spirit of attack in the face of all sorts of hardships and difficulties and their staunch spirit of rising up no matter how often they might fall and fighting it out are now defined as the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu.

While meeting the fighter pilots, who have successfully wound up their tour of the revolutionary battle sites in the Mt Paektu area on the day before climbing the mountain, Kim Jong Un said that he had come a long way putting off his work for the country not only out of compassion for his beloved fighter pilots but to implant deeper in their hearts the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu.

He continued that they must inscribe in their hearts the slogan cherished by the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, the slogan that one must keep the revolutionary faith to the death, and fight burning their hearts like the fighters who had fought against all odds keeping Mt Paektu in their hearts anytime and anywhere and thus emerged victorious. He stressed that by doing so they can exalt the brilliance of the revolutionary exploits of the great leaders and carry forward the revolutionary traditions of Paektu.

To carry forward the revolutionary traditions of Paektu on the highest level is the steadfast will of Kim Jong Un. Having initiated and arranged the tour of the revolutionary battle sites in the Mt Paektu area by the commanding personnel of the KPA combined units in spring last year, he ensured that all other military and civilian units followed suit.

It is his intention to further temper the faith of the service personnel and people and rally them as an unbreakable elite revolutionary force, a force strong in ideology, through such tour.

In the face of the blizzards of Paektu Kim Jong Un was smiling. The smile he wore on his face on Mt Paektu, looking down the enemy forces when a war game staged by the US-led hostile forces was at its height, was an expression of his conviction of final victory.

               To look back, the course he traversed over the past three years after the death of Chairman

Kim Jong Il can be called a course along which he led the Korean service personnel and people to victory by dint of the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu, a course of his tenacious will in the face of all manner of hardships and difficulties. It was a period of offensive, during which he, cherishing the indomitable spirit that he would keep his revolutionary faith to the death, led the efforts to consolidate the country’s military capability to the maximum and to build a thriving country. In those days he never allowed any infringement by anyone of the country’s sovereignty and crushed it mercilessly with countermeasures as tough as the blizzards of Paektu.

Bright is the future of socialist Korea led by another great man of Mt Paektu.