KIM JONG SUK , a great revolutionary heroine for all time -special article for the 105th anniversary of the birth of Madame KIM JONG SUK by Dr Dermot Hudson

On the 24th of December the people of the Democratic People’ Republic of Korea (DPRK ) and progressive and revolutionary people will celebrate the 105th anniversary of the birth of Madame KIM JONG SUK , the distinguished and exemplary heroine of the anti-Japanese war and Mother of Korea .

Comrade KIM JONG SUK was born in Hoeryong City in the far north of Korea on the 24th of December 1917 . The Korea she was born into was a colony of Japan where the Korean people were so intensely oppressed that they could not even use their own names or speak the Korean language . Worse still it was a feudal society , an exploitative society , in which the ordinary people were exploited and oppressed by the feudal landlords . Women suffered a particularly heavy burden  , in fact double and triple oppression because not only were they oppressed by Japanese imperialist rule and the landlords but they had to suffer from the deeply reactionary nature of feudalism which was anti-women. Under feudalism many women did not even have their own names and were called ``Mother of …..”. Women were often not permitted to leave their own households. Japanese imperialist rule further compounded the oppression of Korean women by forcing 200,000 Korean women to become sex slaves for the Japanese imperialist army , a crime without parallel and one that has never been atoned for and for which justice still cries out to be done.

Given the extreme oppression of women in Japanese ruled , feudal Korea, the idea of women entering into any kind of political activity seemed impossible let alone the idea that women would take up the armed struggle for national liberation and independence ! However comrade KIM JONG SUK proved this wrong .When she was only 14, in 1931, comrade KIM JONG SUK joined a revolutionary organisation .She became well known as a political worker as she conducted skilful and adroit political activities among women and youth .Many remember comrade KIM JONG SUK for her modest and simple style as well as her logical and persuasive manner that moved many.

In September 1935 Comrade 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.

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 also participated in the work of building national defence in the new People’s Korea . At the same time she brought her young son ,comrade KIM JONG IL , up as a great revolutionary and also supported President KIM IL SUNG in his revolutionary activities .

Madame KIM JONG SUK fought for the rights of women but not in a divisive way which sought to pit women against men but instead fought to integrate women into the revolutionary struggle for national and class liberation rather than to separate them from it  like bourgeois feminists do . It can be said that Madame KIM JONG SUK created a Juche-based , revolutionary proletarian feminism that achieved  genuine liberation for women under the banner of the Juche idea and people-centred socialism .

The DPRK is one of the few Asian countries to have statues of a woman leader .There are many statues of Madame KIM JONG SUK . In the International Friendship Exhibition in Mt Myohyang there is the waxwork figure of Madame KIM JONG SUK which I have seen several times . When I saw it I recalled the great exploits of Madame KIM JONG SUK , whose life was a true example for revolutionary women all over the world .

Dr Dermot Hudson 

Chairman British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea .

Chairman Korean Friendship Association of the UK 

President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK

Chairman British Solidarity Committee for  Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula .

Hon Secretary General , International Central Committee for Songun Study.