Whilst he was growing up President KIM IL SUNG witnessed the contradictions of capitalist society and also the oppression and ill treatment of the Korean people by the Japanese imperialists who had occupied and colonised Korea . His father KIM HYONG JIK an ardent Korean patriot and the founder of the Korean National Association . Also KIM HYONG JIK was instrumental in changing the Korean nationalist movement towards communism following the example of the great October Proletarian Socialist Revolution in Russia in 1917 which saw the birth of the first workers and peasants state in the world .
" We are Koreans by nationality , and Korean young people . We the Korean youth ,cannot merely sit back and remain onlookers while our beautiful land and beloved compatriots , our brothers and sisters are being trodden underfoot and persecuted by the Japanese imperialists. We must drive them from our soil,liberate Korea and win independence.But we cannot stop there. We are communists. Communist cannot let untouched the evil landlords and capitalists who oppress and exploit the proletarian masses .
We ,therefore ,must overthrow the capitalist system and build a socialist and communist society, the long-cherished desire of the proletarian masses . These two revolutionary tasks are not foreign to each other. To carry out the proletarian revolution ,it is essential above all to crush Japanese imperialism and achieve the independence and liberation of Korea, and then build a socialist and communist society in our land and help carry out the world revolution as well "
Some people think it easier to fight for revolution in an Asian or African or Latin American country than in Europe or north America but in reality it is actually just as difficult, in fact hundred times more difficult in those countries . In Korea in the early decades of the 20th century , the idea of revolution would have seemed impossible . Korea in those days was not only a colony of Japan but was a feudal society where relations of oppression , subjugation and domination had existed for centuries and were seen as ' the natural order of things' , which could not be changed . Worse still many people were illiterate which meant promoting revolutionary ideas through the medium of the written word was impossible . Only a daring , courage , strong , intelligent and far-sighted leader could lead the revolution in a country like Korea . Such a leader in the form of President KIM IL SUNG appeared and took the helm of the revolution at an early age . The great leader President KIM L SUNG was an outstanding thinker and theoretician who grasped from his early days the need to advance the struggle for independence and revolution on a new basis . He set up the Down With Imperialism Union in 1926 with a revolutionary school students and youth , This represented a decisive clean break with the stale dogmas of factionalism and flunkeyism and meant a movement not based on a few privlieged individuals but one based on the popular masses. Later the great leader President KIM IL SUNG formed the Anti-Imperialist Youth League and Young Communist League of Korea.
The great leader President KIM IL SUNG outlined the Juche-orientated path of the Korean revolution at the historic Kalun meeting held from the end of June 1930 to the beginning of July 1930. At the meeting he also put forward the Songun based line of revolution . Looking the experience of the Korean revolution the great leader President KIM IL SUNG pointed out
"Experience shows that in order to lead the revolution to victory, one must go among the masses of people and organize them, and solve all problems arising in the course of the revolution independently on one’s own responsibility in accord with the actual conditions, instead of relying on others.
Drawing on this lesson we regard it as most important to take the firm standpoint that the masters of the Korean revolution are the Korean people and that the Korean revolution should by all means be carried out by the Korean people themselves in a way suited to the actual conditions of their country.
Thus the Juche-orientated line of the Korean revolution was set forth . Keenly realising that independence cannot be achieved by peaceful means or handed to the Korean people by a big power he said "In order to guarantee success in the Korean revolution, we must, first of all, organize and wage an armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists.
As the historical experience and lessons of the anti-Japanese struggle show, no one can bring us independence on a tray; we can never vanquish the Japanese imperialists and win national independence by peaceful means.
Moreover, the present situation urgently demands that we wage an organized armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists. Since the Japanese imperialists are intensifying their suppression without precedent and we are dealing with an enemy armed to the teeth, we must gradually build up the violent mass struggle into an organized armed struggle"
In July 1930 the Korean Revolutionary Army was founded . The great leader President KIM IL SUNG pursued a truly unique Songun based line of guerrilla in which the armed forces were founded before the Party . In Russia the Bolshevik Party had been formed before the Worker -Peasant Red Army , in China the Communist Party of Chine was formed before the Peoples Liberation Army and in Ireland the Irish Republican Army was founded 12 years after the formation of the Sinn Fein Party.
After the Kalun meeting President KIM IL SUNG reiterated at the Mingyuegou Meeting in December Juche 20 (1931) that the armed struggle was the basic line of the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle of Korea and clarified strategic and tactical problems immediately arising in organizing and developing the anti-Japanese armed struggle such as the type of the armed struggle, organization of a standing revolutionary armed force and establishment of a guerrilla base as a stronghold of political and military activity. President KIM IL SUNG in his speech underscored the need for self-reliance saying that "we fight the armed struggle with no state backing and no aid from outside "
Then President KIM IL SUNG founded the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army on August 25, 1932. It was the birth of a new-type revolutionary armed force for the national liberation and a historic event that provided the military guarantee for realising victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche by dint of arms. It heralded the start of the great anti-Japanese revolutionary war . The KPRA fought the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and the Juche Idea . They seized weapons from the Japanese aggressors or manufactured their own . Some hoped that the Soviet Union, the first socialist state, would supply them with a hand-grenade factory but this never materialised so they made their own hand-grenades the 'Yongil bomb'(of course today the DPRK has its own nuclear 'Yongil bomb'
In March 1934 the Anti Japanese People's Guerrilla Army became the Korean People's Revolutionary Army . Under the command of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG, an ever victorious iron-willed brilliant commander, the stout hearted and heroic guerrilla revolutionary fighters of the KPRA fought many battles against the Japane imperialist agressors such the battle of Pochonbo and the battle of Musan to name just a few . The battle of Pochonbo on the 4 June 1937 was most significant as it symbolised the KPRA's advance into the Korean homeland. One third world revolutionary figure on visiting the monument to the Pochonbo battle said "the beacon fire of Pochonbo marked a great event which gave confidence in struggle not only to the Korean people under the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism but also the world's revolutionary people groaning in those days under the heels of imperialist aggressors- fascist Germany, Italy, Japanese imperialism , and American and British imperialism '
President KIM IL SUNG also applied the Juche idea to the question of the united front and popular front and founded the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland , a Juche-orientated united national front in May 1936.
President KIM IL SUNG adopted adroit guerrilla tactics . The KPRA under his
leadership showed great tactical flexibility for example switching to small unit activities in 1940 in order to preserve and accumulate the revolution
The hard and arduous revolutionary armed struggle led by the great leader President KIM IL SUNG paid off in the end on the 9th of August 1945 general KIM IL SUNG gave the order for the final offensive against the Japanese marauders .The KPRA together with Soviet army units surged into Korea , the KPRA often taking the lead in the more difficult battles. On August 15 1945 Korea was liberated at last from Japanese imperialist rule. 36 years of dark oppressive rule by the fascist Japanese and their decadent Samurai culture came to an end in a day . This was the feat of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG an ever victorious iron-willed brilliant commander and gifted military strategist.
The revolution did not stop with Korea's liberation and independence . It was merely a first but important step on the road of revolution . President KIM IL SUNG then initiated and led the anti-imperialist , anti-feudal democratic revolution which advanced like the force of a hurricane to sweep away all traces of feudalism and imperialism from the land of Korea .
In March 1946 The land of landlords over who had 5 hectares of land or more and that of those who continuously rented out their land was confiscated and redistributed to the toiling farmers free of charge without paying compensation to the landlords. . Over a million hectares of land was confiscated and redistributed .The Agrarian Reform Law also forbid the buying,selling and mortgaging of law which meant the landlords could not make a comeback and checked the potential growth of a new rural bourgeoisie. The DPRK's land reform was very far reaching and quite unique . Other important and radical measures were such as the Sexual Equality Law , Labour Law and nationalisation of industries were carried . President KIM IL SUNG also founded the Workers' Party of Korea , the general staff of the Korean revolution on the 10th of October 1945.
President KIM IL SUNG saw revolution as a continuous process and was not content with just carrying out the anti-imperialist , anti-feudal revolution but after the devastating Korean War (Fatherland Liberation War ) in the 1950s he led the socialist revolution which finally wiped out all traces of oppression , exploitation and profiteering . After the socialist revolution President KIM IL SUNG advanced the line of the three revolutions , ideological , cultural and technical with the aim of totally revolutionising society and eliminating the legacies of the old society forever .
Thus on April 15th the day of the birth of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG we recall the life a great man who made a revolution in the land of Korea.
Dr Dermot Hudson
Chairman British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea
Chairman UK Korean Friendship Association
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK
Chairman British Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula
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