Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of the passing away of Madame KIM JONG SUK who is known as the mother of Korea .Madame KIM JONG SUK is revered by the Korean people as the immortal heroine of the anti-Japanese guerrilla war of the Korean people for their independence . Although there is much talk of women’s rights, feminism and equality amongst progressive and socialist circles in Britain , Madame KIM JONG SUK is an unknown figure to them . I hope that this modest speech will make a contribution to introducing the life of Madame KIM JONG SUK to the British people.
On my first ever visit to the DPRK in 1992 we visited the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery at Mt Taesong, in Pyongyang City which is the final resting place of those heroes who under the leadership of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG took up arms,. I was very impressed to see the sculpture of the Madame KIM JONG SUK the great woman revolutionary fighter, heroine of the anti-Japanese war and the Mother of Korea . The sculpture was placed in an important position in the front row and it looks out over Pyongyang city almost as if Madame KIM JONG SUK is viewing the socialist paradise that she fought so hard to create.
Of course is not at all surprising that Madam KIM JONG SUK should be so prominent in the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery as it fully reflects the role that she played in the anti-Japanese revolutionary armed struggle after joining the revolution at a very young age.Madam KIM JONG SUK was the great woman general of Mt Paektu who fought at the side of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG
In the DPRK there are a number of statues of Madame KIM JONG SUK , the DPRK is probably the only Asian country to uphold , respect and venerate a woman leader . This something truly remarkable .It reflects both the great and immortal exploits of Madame KIM JONG SUK and at the same time the position of women in the DPRK a socialist country which grants equality to women .
Madame KIM JONG SUK passed away at a young age, only 32 years of age on the 22nd of September 1949. No doubt this reflected the hard life she lived making many sacrifices , always putting others first.
Madame KIM JONG SUK was born into a poor peasant family in Hoeryong in the far northern part of Korea.The Korea that she was born into was a colony of Japan.The Japanese operated a most vicious colonial rule and tried to obliterate the national identity of the Korean people by forbidding people to speak Korean.It was also a feudal society. Women in Korea faced double and triple oppression . Under feudal customs women were not expected to leave the home. Korean women devised the game of see saw to they see over the garden wall . Many Korean women were deprived of even the basic form of education so could not read and write . Some women did not have their own names but were just referred to as ‘mother of such and such’ . It should be mentioned that the Japanese occupiers committed grave crimes against Korean women by forcing over 200,000 Korean women into sexual slaver .
She and her family had to endure the extremely harsh exploitation , oppression and slavery of not only the Japanese imperialists who had colonized Korea but also the greedy landlords and capitalists . KIM JONG SUK was forced to turn a mill for a landlord because of a debt , in other words slavery .
KIM JONG SUK became very quickly aware of the contradictions of society as well the harsh , oppressive rule of the Japanese imperialists so she joined a revolutionary organisation at the early
age of 14 in September 1931. She had soon distinguished herself as a brilliant political worker . She made a deep impression on people . The veteran long term unconverted prisoner Ri In Mo recalls meeting her in the 1930s not knowing who she was . In September 1935 KIM JONG SUK was admitted to the Korean People's Revolutionary Army (KPRA) commanded by the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG . She quickly distinguished herself as an iron-willed adroit guerrilla fighter, particularly as a crackshot . She defended the life of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG on several occasions.
More importantly she defended the revolutionary ideology of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG and his policies . Because of its arduous and complex nature the Korean revolution was not without traitors and renegades. Some rightist capitulationists tried to undermine the guerrilla bases
and spread defeatism . They even arrested loyal revolutionary comrades as 'spies'. KIM JONG SUK had strong class consciousness and believed totally in the Juche-based revolutionary line of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG so she waged a struggle to smash the counter-revolutionary opportunists.
Madame KIM JONG SUK bought up her son comrade KIM JONG IL , the future leader of the
DPRK, to be a strong revolutionary and leader.
After liberation Madame KIM JONG SUK without stopping for a rest , threw herself into the work of building a new democratic Korea after its liberation from the long dark rule of Japanese imperialism. In particular she paid attention to the questions of women's liberation and was the founder of the Korean Democratic Women's Union . She opposed bourgeois feminism and instead put forward a Juche-based , proletarian , socialist feminism .This came from her unshakable class stand and belief in the Juche Idea of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG In the West bourgeois feminism has proved to be highly divisive , setting women against men .
Thanks to the ideas of KIM JONG SUK and the Juche-based socialist system women in the DPRK enjoy real equality . Many measures have been put in place to practically guarantee women's equality in society . The DPRK does not have pornography or the capitalist 'sex industry' or Western sexual culture which reduces women to pieces of meat . Today in the DPRK women are strong , independent minded , and revolutionary . This is the legacy of Madame KIM JONG SUK.
The life and achievements of Madame KIM JONG SUK are indeed very great so that the Korean people and revolutionary peoples of the world study and uphold them . In some countries organisations bearing her name have been formed such as the Peru group for the study of the revolutionary activities of Kim Jong Suk and the Kim Jong Suk Women's Union of Russia .
Visiting the International Friendship Exhibition at Mt Myohyang in of 2017 r we saw the waxwork statue of Madame KIM JONG SUK which looked very lifelike . Looking at the statue I recalled the great exploits of Madame KIM JONG SUK , Mother of Korea, heroine of the anti-Japanese revolutionary , indomitable communist revolutionary fighter and the pioneer of Juche-based , socialist women's liberation.
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