75-Year History of the Korean People’s Army

75 years have elapsed since the founding of the Korean People’s Army of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Following are the watersheds in the history of the world-class army.

Smashing the Myth of the “Strongest”

On June 25, 1950, the United States unleashed an aggressive war in Korea in order to occupy its whole territory and thus provide a springboard for achieving its strategy of world supremacy. By abusing the name of the UN, it hurled into the Korean front one-third of its Army, one-fifth of its Air Force, most of its Pacific Fleet, some of its Mediterranean Fleet, troops of 15 of its satellite countries, the south Korean army and the remnants of the former Japanese army. It even resorted to nuclear blackmail. 

At the time its might was regarded as a myth. 

Compared to this, the Korean People’s Army was too young, no more than two years old after its founding (February 8, 1948). However, it repulsed the invasion by the allied imperialist forces on the strength of the original strategies and tactics advanced by Supreme Commander Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) and its spiritual and moral superiority and thus defended with honour the independence and sovereignty of the country.

Mark Clark, the then commander of the UN Forces, wrote later: 

The north Korean army could achieve success because of the skilful command of General Kim Il Sung.

Under the command of Kim Il Sung, the KPA immediately switched over to a counterattack and liberated Seoul, the citadel of the enemy, on the third day of the outbreak of the war, encircled and annihilated through adroit manoeuvring the 24

th Division of the US forces in Taejon, sank the US heavy cruiser Baltimore with four torpedo boats and shot down the enemy’s jet fighters with turbopropeller-powered aircraft; they were miracles wrought during the Korean war. And the aircraft-hunting team movement, formation of the second front with soldiers of the regular army, tunnel warfare and others were tactics alien to the US generals.                       

The KPA soldiers defended every inch of their country at the cost of blood by displaying mass heroism, even making a bayonet charge when the bullets ran out. Some of them blocked the enemy’s gun muzzles with their chests for the charge of their units.

The United States enlisted two-million-strong forces and latest military hardware during the three-year war, but suffered a human and material loss 2.3 times that it had suffered in the four-year war in the Pacific during the Second World War. 

Frustrating the Enemy’s Military Provocations at Every Step

Since the Korean war was over, the DPRK has so far stood in confrontation with the United States.

The United States has committed one military provocation after another, but each time the KPA frustrated it. 

A typical example is the capture of the Pueblo, an armed spy ship equipped with latest equipment. When it was committing acts of espionage in the territorial waters of the DPRK, the Navy of the KPA overpowered the resisting enemy sailors and captured it on January 23, 1968.

As it had one of its warships captured by another country for the first time in its history, the United States massed its troops including a carrier strike force around the Korean peninsula, forcing the DPRK to release the ship. 

The DPRK, however, confronted the US provocative schemes by declaring its stand that it would meet the enemy’s “retaliation” with retaliation and return all-out war for “all-out war;” the service personnel occupied their combat posts, all set for a do-or-die fight, and the civilians engaged in their work with a rifle in one hand and a hammer or sickle in the other hand.

Daunted by its resolute stand, the US administration submitted a document of apology, which was as good as a document of surrender, and had only the crew return home.

Defending Peace

Today the KPA has become a world-class army, prepared politically and ideologically and possessed with state-of-the-art strategic and tactical weapons. It is guaranteeing the peaceful environment of the Korean peninsula, where an acute military confrontation still exists. 

In August 2015 and in 2017 the United States and other hostile forces drove the Korean peninsula situation to a crisis. In those days the KPA took resolute countermeasures for the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the surrounding region.

In 2022, when the United States and its vassal forces conducted several n

uclear war games, clamouring for “strengthened offer of extended deterrent” and aggravating the situation in the peninsula. 

At the time the KPA clearly demonstrated its supremacy and frustrated the enemy’s moves by taking large-scale military countermeasures–firing artillery of various calibres and launching tactical and strategic missiles and flying aircraft numbering hundreds. 

While guiding the test-fire of new-type ICBM Hwasongpho-17 on November 18, 2022, Kim Jong Un, President of the State Affairs of the DPRK, solemnly declared that if the enemy continues to pose threats to the DPRK, frequently introducing nuclear strike means, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK will resolutely react to nuke with nuke and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation.

The KPA will, in the future, too, reliably defend the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the surrounding region.