70 GLORIOUS YEARS OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE’S ARMY
Speech by Dermot Hudson
In 5 days’ time, on the 8th of February, it will be the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Army. This is the anniversary of the foundation of the standing and regular people’s armed force of the Korean revolution. Of course the KPA goes back much further than 1948, its roots were in the formation of the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army which later became the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army which in turn became the backbone of the regular KPA when it was formed.
President KIM IL SUNG made the formation of a regular revolutionary armed force a priority after winning independence from the cruel and tyrannical rule of Japanese imperialism. Addressing cadres just after liberation on August 20th 1945 he made the the historic speech “On Founding the Party, State and Armed Forces in the Liberated Homeland” and said that “ For a country to become a fully sovereign state we must organise our own powerful national army capable of defending the country and the people and safeguarding the gains of the revolution “ , he also pointed out that “ a country without a national army can hardly be called a fully sovereign state “
In a speech titled “On Some Problems Arising in Independently Developing the Country at Present “ made on the 26th of June 1946 President KIM IL SUNG reiterated this points saying that”If our country is to become a completely independent and sovereign state it should have its own army capable of defending it and the nation “
This is of course an expression of the Songun or army first idea which basically means that the revolution is defended and advanced by arms .
President KIM IL SUNG took active measures for founding the Korean People’s Army at an early stage. On the 17th of November 1945 he established the Pyongyang Institute .President KIM IL SUNG also established an independent munitions industry. The DPRK’s very own armaments industry factory was established at Pyongchon. Our delegation visited the Pyongchon revolutionary site, in April 2016, where the first armaments factory of the DPRK had been established.
Some great power chauvinists in the USSR actually opposed the efforts of the DPRK to build its own armed forces and munitions industry . Of course these views did not reflect the views of the Soviet leadership.
The backbone of the new revolutionary armed force was to be the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army that had fought the Japanese imperialists for 15 years in the forests of Manchuria . President KIM IL SUNG selected cadres who had been steeled in the anti-Japanese armed struggle to command the new revolutionary armed force , such as Kim Chaek , Choe Yong Gon, An Kil, Kang Kon, Kim Il , Choe Hyon, Ryu Kyong Su(who the famous 105 tank division is named after),O Paek Ryong,Jo Jong Chol and Cho Chun Guk.
Founding a regular army was also essential because Korea had been artificially divided by the US imperialists in 1945. As some of you know , a US army colonel took a pencil and a ruler and draw a line across the map of Korea at the 38th parallel and occupied south Korea setting up a puppet regime in the south . The US imperialists established military bases in south Korea and started to create a south Korean puppet army with those who had collaborated with the Japanese and served in the Japanese armed forces. From 1947 there were 270 incursions into the territory of north Korea . Areas such as Mt Unpa and Kuksa Peak
President KIM IL SUNG pushed forward for the preparations to found a regular army , the Korean People’s Army . It was founded on the 8th of February, some 7 months before the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the 9th of September 1948. and a parade was held to mark the foundation of the KPA which basically symbolised the transformation of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (founded as the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army) into a regular and standing revolutionary armed force.
The Korean People’s Army is fundamentally different to the reactionary and oppressive armed forces in imperialist and capitalist countries. As President KIM IL SUNG explained in his speech “ON THE OCCASION OF THE FOUNDING OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE’S ARMY” which was made to the parade of the Korean People’s Army "The People’s Army we have founded today is an army of a new type, fundamentally different from that of a capitalist country.
The army of a capitalist country is organized to defend and maintain by force of arms the system of oppression and exploitation of the working people—the vast majority of the population—in the interests of a handful of capitalists and landlords and to attack other nations and invade the territories of other countries. We saw this kind of army vividly in Hitler Germany and militarist Japan, and we see it now in all capitalist countries. In particular, the US army that after the war entered countries such as China and Greece, which were not defeated nations, and interfered in their internal affairs, and enforced military government in south Korea, refusing to withdraw, has become the prototype of the predatory imperialist army of today “
Another essential feature of the KPA was that it continued the revolutionary traditions established by the anti-Japanese armed guerrillas. As President KIM IL SUNG explained “Another specific feature of our People’s Army is that its backbone is composed of true patriots of Korea who devoted their all in the past to the anti-Japanese armed struggle for the liberation of the country and the people in the face of brutal Japanese imperialist suppression.
After the Japanese imperialists occupied our country, the true patriots took up arms at home and abroad and waged arduous guerrilla warfare against Japanese imperialism. When the pro-Japanese elements, now acting as flunkeys of US imperialism in south Korea, were oppressing and exploiting the Korean people in league with Japanese imperialism and went so far as to drive the young men and women of Korea so dear to us to the battlefield to further Japan’s aggressive war, Korean patriots formed anti-Japanese armed units and waged a protracted, bloody struggle against the Japanese imperialist army of aggression which far outnumbered them, thereby stoutly defending the pride and honour of our nation. Our People’s Army is created today with these patriotic revolutionaries as its backbone and on the basis of the rich experience they accumulated during the long-drawn anti-Japanese armed struggle”
The development of the KPRA into the KPA was a brilliant success of President KIM IL SUNG’s Juche idea and the Songun idea and Songun revolutionary line based on the Juche idea.
In the 1950s the KPA beat back the U.S. imperialists' invasion to swallow up the DPRK in it’s whilst it was in its infancy, inflicting the first ever defeat on US imperialism thus demonstrating. the dignity and honour of the DPRK and Korean people during the Fatherland Liberation War.
Later the regular revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK inflicted defeats on the US imperialists during the "Pueblo Incident ", the EC121 Incident, the Panmunjom incident of 1976 and the 1994 helicopter incident. It is worth recalling the “Pueblo “incident, the 50th anniversary of which fell last week on the 23rd of January.
The Pueblo had been captured on January 23, Juche 57 (1968) while spying on military and state secrets of the DPRK after intruding into its territorial waters in the East Sea of Korea up to 7.6 miles from Ryo Islet near Wonsan at latitude 39 degrees 17.4 minutes north and longitude 127 degrees 46.9 minutes east, The Pueblo was boarded by sailors of the navy of the Korean People's Army who captured 80 US spies, one of them was killed.
The great leader comrade KIM JONG IL praised the KPA sailors saying ""Well done. Well done, indeed. Our bluejackets are brave," ...This is a world shocking incident. It is unprecedented that an armed spy ship of the US imperialists, who boast of being the 'mightiest' in the world, has been captured. This incident could only have occurred in Korea."
The arrogant US imperialists were extremely outraged by the DPRK's just self-defensive action which was obviously aimed defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DPRK .The Yanks had been caught fair and square and banged to rights. However the US imperialists ignored those and went as far as to demand the immediate return of the ship and its crew. At the same time they brazenly denied it was an armed spy ship claiming it was an innocent civilian research ship . One can only chuckle at the nonsense that the US imperialists talk. They threatened the DPRK with bombing and even nuclear war, dispatching a nuclear aircraft the "USS Enterprise ".The great leader President KIM IL SUNG and the Korean people were completely unfazed by the threats and bravado of the US imperialists .Addressing the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People's Army President KIM IL SUNG said
"If the US imperialists persist in their attempt to solve this matter by mobilising their armed forces, threaten and blackmail us, they will get nothing out of it If they do get anything it will be only corpses and death
We do not want war but were are not afraid of war, Our people and People's Army will retaliate for the retaliation of the US imperialists and return all-out war for all-out war”
In fact the revisionist Soviet Union obsessed with 'peaceful co-existence ' and 'peaceful co-operation' always doing deals with US imperialism, had already put pressure on the DPRK to hand back the ship and its crew .The DPRK's action in capturing the Pueblo was totally independent of the Soviet Union and China, indeed the DPRK had done something that neither of these two big powers would dare to do.
The crew of the Pueblo confessed to their crimes of spying on and aggression against the DPRK. In the US had no alternative but to apologise for its crimes and humbly ask for the crew to be returned. US general Gilbert Woodward handed over a letter of apology to DPRK representatives at Panmunjom. The Pueblo crew were duly expelled from the DPRK on the 23rd of December 1968 nearly one year after they had been captured. The tough and uncompromising stand of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG and the Korea people had been vindicated. The US imperialists had been defeated in their confrontation with People's Korea, they had to apologise, they got the crew but the ship remained in the hands of the DPRK forever. You can visit the ship today in the DPRK at the Fatherland Liberation War Museum.
After the baton of supreme commander passed to the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL the KPA inflicted defeats on the south Korean fascist war provokers in the West sea and at Yongphyong Island .
In March 2013 and August 2015 the Korean People's Army under the command of the dear respected Marshal KIM JONG UN smashed the aggressive moves of the US imperialists and south Korean puppets.
Our delegations have witnessed the incredible steel-like unity and total discipline of the Korean People's Army at the military parades of April 2012, July 2013 , October 2015 and April 2017. These were truly awe inspiring to watch and it was a rare privilege to be there. Military parades in the DPRK are different from those in former socialist countries as in the DPRK the paraders march with vigour and enthusiasm and with colourful displays. In the former socialist countries the military parades looked gloomy.The KPA military parade was full of vigour and colour. Of course some big powers may put on big military parades but these are just for show with no real content, the troops of these countries lack militant anti-imperialist spirit whereas the KPA has emblazoned on its tanks and armour the slogan "Let Us Wipe Out the US imperialist aggressors , the sworn enemy of the Korean people ! "
Now the KPA , is under the command of dear respected Marshal KIM JONG UN the regular revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK are growing stronger each day. The DPRK has become an advanced nuclear power of Juche. When the KPA first paraded through the streets of Pyongyang in February 1948, its soldiers were equipped with rifles and sub-machine guns and some other weapons. However when you see a parade of the KPA today you will see tanks , long range guns , ICBMs and other impressive military hardware . The strength of the KPA has grown a 100 fold and a 1000 fold in the 70 years since 1948.
It is not only an army strong in technique and military hardware but strong in ideology and steadfastness. As the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL said in his work “THE SONGUN-BASED REVOLUTIONARY LINE IS A GREAT REVOLUTIONARY LINE OF OUR ERA AND AN EVER-VICTORIOUS BANNER OF OUR REVOLUTION”
“Our People’s Army is unfailingly loyal to the Party and the revolution and very strong in ideology and faith, and it is the most organized combat unit. It defends the Party and the leader and carries out the Party’s policies at all costs, and fights to the death for the cause of the Party, the cause of socialism. The men and officers Of the People’s Army, Who defend me country and the revolution by force of arms in the van, love their country more dearly than anyone else, are eager to defend socialism and fight uncompromisingly against imperialism and the class enemy with intense hatred.”
We are convinced that led by respected Marshal KIM JONG UN , the Songun brilliant commander the KPA will win final victory over the US imperialists and reunify the country .
LONG LIVE THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE'S ARMY!
Dermot Hudson
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
Chairman UK KFA
03.02.2018
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