Thursday 17 August 2023

Speech on the 78th anniversary of Korea's Liberation to the online meeting 14.08.2023 by Dr Dermot Hudson

Tomorrow, the Korean people will mark the 78th anniversary of Korea’s liberation. They will celebrate 78 years of sovereignty and independence. The anniversary of Korea’s liberation is also being celebrated at a time when the DPRK has just celebrated the 70th anniversary of the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War against the US imperialists and in a few weeks' time it will be the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK. Of course, neither the foundation of the DPRK nor the victory against the US imperialist aggressors would have been possible without Korea’s independence.


On the 15th of August 1945, Korea was liberated from the grim and oppressive fascist rule of Japanese imperialism which had lasted 36 years. Korea’s liberation was thanks to the 20-year-long armed struggle conducted under the leadership of the great leader General KIM IL SUNG, the sun of the Korean nation, an ever-victorious iron-willed brilliant commander and gifted military strategist. The anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army led by the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG had neither a state base nor rear to rely on. The armed struggle of the anti-Japanese guerrillas was a self-reliant one that embodied the Juche Idea and the Songun Idea. The great leader General KIM IL SUNG cast aside the flunkeyist idea of relying on big powers for salvation and instead conducted an independent struggle, based on Juche, against Japanese imperialism fully relying on the masses of people.  In the early days of the struggle for national liberation President KIM IL SUNG said “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

                                  

As a young communist, patriot and revolutionary in the 1920s, President KIM IL SUNG keenly realised the road of peaceful resistance, the road of dependence on big power and the road of factionalism were roads to nowhere, a massive dead end. So he set about waging the struggle against Japanese imperialist rule independently and in the spirit of self-reliance. He formed revolutionary organisations with the new generation of militant anti-imperialist youth such as the Down-With-Imperialism Union, the Young Communist League of Korea and the Anti-Imperialist Youth League. Believing that independence could only be achieved by the force of arms President KIM IL SUNG formed the Korean Revolutionary Army in July 1930. On the 25th of April 1932, the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerilla Army, later to become the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, was founded and launched the anti-Japanese war which continued for more than a decade .


             The anti-Japanese armed struggle fully proved in practice the truth of Songun that independence is achieved by the force of arms. During the anti-Japanese armed struggle, the great leader generalissimo KIM IL SUNG adhering firmly to the line of Songun rejected the illusions of the national reformists and opportunists that independence could be achieved by peaceful means or by begging for it.


  Some people like to say that the liberation of Korea was due to the Soviet Union or the Soviet Union and China. They like to portray People’s Korea as a creation of another country. To this,two things can be said. Firstly, that the USSR only entered the war on the 9th of August 1945 whereas the anti-Japanese armed struggle had been waged since 1930  when President KIM IL SUNG formed the Korean Revolutionary Army and later the Anti-Japanes People’s Guerilla Army. Secondly, the question is then posed: how did the USSR and China succeed in their revolutions? It was because of the efforts of the people in those countries, so it is the same for Korea.


The anti-Japanese guerrillas led by President KIM IL SUNG, fought in the spirit of self-reliance under the banner of the Juche idea. They seized weapons from the Japanese aggressors or manufactured their own. Some had 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 People’s Korea has its own nuclear Yongil bomb.


     The Juche-oriented guerrilla tactics of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG and the indomitable struggle of the Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army (later the Korean People's Revolutionary Army ) tore the guts out of Japanese imperialism, defeating the million-strong Kwantung army of Japanese imperialism. The KPRA  fought battles at Pochonbo on the 4th of June 1937 and Musan on the 23rd of May 1939 just to mention two of the hundreds of battles fought by the KPRA.   On the 9th of August 1945, the KPRA under the command of comrade KIM IL SUNG commenced the final operation to liberate Korea from Japanese imperialist rule. The barbaric Japanese imperialist invaders were expelled from the land of Korea at last.                

   

 The defeat of Japanese imperialism, one of the main forces and shock brigade of international fascism, by the partisans of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army led by the great leader General KIM IL SUNG made a great contribution to the victory of the worldwide anti-fascist forces.

                                        

   The victorious liberation struggle of the Korean people led by General KIM IL SUNG, a gifted military strategist and ever-victorious iron-willed brilliant commander was an inspiration for the peoples of the colonial countries fighting for their independence and liberation. The 1968 World Cultural Congress in Havana adopted a document praising the anti-Japanese armed struggle waged under the leadership of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG.

    

With the victory of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, commanded by the great leader generalissimo KIM IL SUNG, in August 1945 the Korean people finally gained their emancipation from the cruel shackles of Japanese colonialism and greeted a new life of independence, a life of hope for the future.

The Korean people under the leadership of President KIM IL SUNG smashed feudalism and completely eradicated the legacy of Japanese colonial rule building a new People’s Korea on the ruins of Japanese imperialism. Today People’s Korea led by respected Marshal KIM JONG UN is well known as the most independent country in the world and is building a powerful socialist country of Juche.


Long live the 78th anniversary of Korea’s independence!

   





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