The great victory in the Taejon Liberation Battle-special article by Dr Dermot Hudson

As the 70th anniversary of the great victory of the Korean people approaches I recall my visits to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation Museum in Pyongyang, which was reconstructed back in 2013, I have seen many times the giant diorama of the Taejon Liberation Battle. The diorama has a rotating stage on which visitors sit to view the diorama. I have never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world.

It was 73 years ago on the 20th of July  1950, the troops of the Korean People’s Army commanded by the great leader Generalissimo KIM IL SUNG liberated the city of Taejon. The south Korean puppets had designated Taejon their temporary capital after the fall of Seoul, the south Korean puppet capital on the 28th of June, only three days after the Fatherland Liberation War(known as the Korean War in the West ) Taejon was liberated just over 3 weeks after the provocation of the Fatherland Liberation  War by the south Korean fascist puppets under the orders of the US imperialists.

The south Korean puppets had bragged to their US imperialist masters that when they provoked the war on the 25th of June 1950 that they would ‘eat breakfast in Haeju, lunch in Pyongyang and supper in Sinuiju”( Haeju being a town in the south part of the DPRK  and Sinuiju being a northern city of the DPRK near to the Chinese border). However, the south Korean puppet troops proved no match whatsoever for the Korean People’s  Army commanded by the great leader President KIM IL SUNG , which had inherited the traditions of the anti-Japanese armed struggle. The south Korean puppet virtually collapsed. Vast areas of south Korea were liberated within days and weeks, the victorious KPA advanced like a knife slicing through butter. 

The Yankee imperialists were desperate to avoid total defeat and the extinction of the corrupt and incompetent south Korean puppet regime. They began a direct intervention in the war virtually from day one and railroaded a fake resolution through their marionette UN Security Council which authorised all-out intervention under the cover of the UN flag. Very soon the US threw a huge amount of armed forces into the war. Of course, these had been waiting in Japan before the war began ready to intervene in Korea.

                                              

The US imperialists threw into the war, the US 24th Division. This was called the 'Taro Division ', meaning the Victory Division. It had fought the Japanese aggressors in the far east during the second world war. Its commander  General William F Dean had commanded the US troops in  Europe fighting battles in France, Germany and Austria. Dean had been awarded the  Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Legion of Merit. 

However, the mantle of being a victorious division was knocked off and thrown into the dust by the heroic KPA that fought in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance.   Generalissimo KIM IL SUNG applied the Juche-based military tactics that he had developed in the anti-Japanese armed struggle.  In those days(July 1950) the KPA faced the US imperialists and south Korean puppets He ordered the KPA units to encircle the US army division by making sharp detours. The Americans did not expect the KPA to move so fast but they did. The KPA troops moved like lighting.. As the enemy put emphasis on the front and kept the southeastern area open,  Generalissimo KIM IL SUNG  saw to it that the KPA units, which had advanced to the southwestern area, manoeuvred back, some to the area southeast of Taejon to cut off the retreat of the enemy, thus forming a circle surrounding the city.

                                             

   On the morning of the 20th of July Taejon was liberated. General Dean the commander of the 24th division was captured, trying to escape, by a young soldier of the Korean People's Army. Dean had in the second world war commanded US troops which took 30,000 prisoners but now Dean himself had ended up being taken prisoner. Today  Dean’s general’s pips and boots can be seen in the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum. The KPA under Generalissimo KIM IL SUNG had turned the tables on the Yankee imperialists.

                                         

The KPA had killed or captured 24 228 enemy troops, captured 20 080 stands of small arms, destroyed or captured 150-odd cannons, 49 tanks and some 1 010 armoured cars and motorcars and shot down or destroyed 32 planes.

This was a victory achieved by the Korean People’s Army fighting on its own and not with the help of outside forces. It was a victory of the Juche-based military tactics of Generalissimo KIM IL SUNG which will shine forever!

Dr Dermot Hudson

Chairman of 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