Pyongyang, April 27 (KCNA) -- The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un made a speech at the inauguration ceremony of the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations.
The full text of his speech is as follows:
Officers and combatants of the overseas operations units of the Korean People’s Army, who are here by accomplishing a sacred mission and earning invaluable honour,
Officers and soldiers of the People's Army,
Bereaved family members of the martyrs,
Citizens of Pyongyang,
Soldier-builders, officials and creative workers, who have wonderfully completed this important and responsible construction project,
Members of the official delegation of the Russian Federation on a visit to Pyongyang to share this significant moment with us, as well as dear friends,
Comrades,
Today we are holding the ceremony of inaugurating the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations that will tell forever the heroic feats and ennobling spirit of the proud sons of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, who sacrificed their precious lives in the sacred battles for justice and dignity.
Our motherland has built a monument in the capital city, which the combatants so dearly cherished in their hearts and always respected, to honour their precious lives and soul, and is greeting the moment of embracing them.
Everyone of this country has waited for this day.
As the bereaved family members, seeing here from a stone's throw away, have waited for the day when their beloved ones would be embraced, the comrades-in-arms of the martyrs, all the officers and soldiers of our army and all the people of our country have longed to see the place where they will lay flowers to wish for the martyrs' immortality, appreciating with infinite ennobling feelings the heroic and precious features of our army they did not fully realize in the past.
Thanks to this ardent wish and sincerity, this museum, where the martyrs will live forever as true and proud sons of their country, has been built.
Thus has been achieved my wish to bring back all our officers and soldiers, who dedicated their precious lives too early, cover their bodies in the national flag and bury them in their motherland, the wish of other officers and soldiers of our army, as their comrades-in-arms who performed military service with them while braving the hail of bullets and gunfire, to pay their warm respect to them and the wish of all other people, as citizens of this country, to offer gratitude and honour to their defenders.
On behalf of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, I extend heartfelt thanks to the officers and soldiers of the construction units of the army at all levels and officials and creative workers of the relevant units, who have devoted unsparing efforts and wisdom for the construction of this museum in reflection of the earnest wish of all the people of the country and the officers and soldiers of the entire army to add lustre to the precious lives of the martyrs for all eternity.
I offer my thanks to the dear comrades of the delegation of the Russian Federation who are here with the feelings of warm tribute and solemn obligation from the people of the fraternal country.
Comrades,
Today marks the first anniversary of the end of the operations for liberating Kursk.
The soldiers of Korea and Russia, who are faithful to the ideal of justice, fought in the same trench shoulder to shoulder to defend peace and national sovereignty, and achieved a result decisive in checking the resurrection of fascism and frustrating the hegemonic forces' ambition for a war.
The operations were military activities conducted in one region in a few months, but the strategic significance of the result is very great.
Justice and injustice have always co-existed in the whole history of mankind, and the confrontation between them has been acute all the time. But there has been no such a situation as that of today in which the forces of domination and tyranny attempt to destroy the desire for national sovereignty and freedom, after they emerged brazenly on this planet as the most shameless and aggressive ultra-rightist reactionary alliance, discarding any sleazy mask or veneer.
In the rigorous and crucial years when the undoubted demand of a country and a nation for its rights to political self-determination and development and the implementation of its obligations have become the target of tyranny, the armies of the DPRK and Russia demonstrated the strength of justice through their bloody struggle, fully aware of the noblest duties they have assumed for their countries and mankind.
The soldiers of the two countries have clearly proved that there does exist in the world a tremendous might capable of overturning the society of evils created by imperialism, by dint of the hearts afire with justice and death-defying strength, and that the tyranny of injustice can never conquer mankind.
In the course of this, the fine sons of the two countries have set examples of true friendship and dedicated their precious blood for the common aim.
There will be neither more sacred contribution nor more correct expression of obligation than sacrificing one's life.
In the sacred war to wipe out the Ukrainian armed invaders who blatantly violated the sovereignty and security of the Russian Federation, our fraternal country, and liberate the Kursk region, the overseas operations units of our Korean People's Army won the priceless victory by displaying matchless bravery, mass heroism, indomitable fighting spirit and noble self-sacrificing spirit.
Thanks to the valiant struggle of the Korean People's Army that repulsed and wiped out the aggressors, shoulder to shoulder with the Russian army, the hegemonic attempt and military adventure pursued by the United States and the West were frustrated.
Standing before us are the war heroes, who should line up here most honourably, with the national flag of dignity and glory in their hands, full of indomitable soul and faith which did not burn even in the flames.
Now everyone knows full well for what they dedicated their youth on the alien battlefields.
But it is scarcely known how each of them fell in what circumstances, for what they wished at the last moment of their lives and what requests they left.
To our remorse, we could not portray every detail of their last moments here.
Probably there will be no museum in the world which can exhibit such loftiness, purity and beauty without regret.
Our soldiers who had been inconspicuous, plain and simple in ordinary days demonstrated their merits most clearly in battles.
The powerful resistance and undaunted offensive they persevered with against all odds and to their death, their trait of not giving up executing the orders till the last moment of their lives, their matchless self-sacrificing spirit of bravely facing death and their heroic choice at the moment of life and death - all these were so unprecedented and legendary that they struck us with wonder before striking the world with wonder and that even the wartime generation would admire.
Every one of those ennobling sacrifices became a valuable stepping stone in the hard-fought battles for our army to hasten the day of liberation.
The symbolic monument at this museum is not a portrayal of a specific martyr; it represents the soldiers of the Korean People's Army, every one of whom is brave, and all the martyrs, who are heroes epitomizing the spirit and mettle of Koreans.
The world of a hero does not find expression in any distinguished feat alone, and heroic behaviour does not come out of any spontaneous impulse.
The fierce battles in the Kursk region were an extension and part of the service by our army for the Party, the revolution, the homeland and the people.
Their deaths were also a moment of the service.
They were all loyalists, patriots and genuine men no matter where they were killed and how.
They must have never imagined they might leave their country even once. They must have taken arms pledging to become a handful of dirt of their homeland when they had to die. However, they unhesitatingly went to the battle sites in a foreign country where their bodies could not be retrieved if they were killed. And when crossing the border they hardened their resolve to execute the orders at the cost of their lives, far from thinking about their native homes, parents, wives and children that became far away. This is too lofty to explain merely with the soldiers' sense of obligation.
As the photos and relics on display here in this museum show, none of them, though they were in an alien country, forgot the Party nor lived separated from the embrace of their homeland even for a moment.
The national flag they would look up to with a solemn feeling before charge while praying for the safety and prosperity of Pyongyang and swearing to defend the homeland, the pouch of soil from the homeland each of them kept in his chest as a reminder of its warmth, the letters they wrote requesting to believe that they would remain honourable before their homeland which had given life to them, as well as before their parents, wives and children, even though they could not return home alive, the letters of pledge that they would implement the orders at the cost of their lives and the blood-stained letters they wrote applying for admittance to the Workers' Party of Korea - these tell many stories about their praiseworthy choices and heroic deaths.
As they could not live separated from their country and they were inseparably bound with it in destiny, they did not expect any compensation, though they performed distinguished feats, nor any reward for their self-sacrifice through self-blasting.
They left only the request for carrying out the order given by the Party, as they fell in action shedding blood, and prayed only for their country's prosperity shouting "Long live Pyongyang!" as they died a heroic death.
What desire, if any, they had was to remain remembered by the Party and the country and, even if they failed to be remembered, they had no greater pride and happiness, if they could feel the self-satisfaction that they accomplished their combat missions given by the Party and the pride that they dedicated their all to the motherland.
Their final moments lasted for some minutes or some seconds, but that brief moment clearly highlighted their pure loyalty to the Party and the country and their maxim of true service.
The self-sacrifice expecting no compensation and the devotion expecting no reward - this will be the definition of the height of loyalty of our army.
Such pure-hearted loyalty comprises the root of extraordinary heroism, the sacred oath, the will to punish the enemy and the personality of the strong who regard even death as their honour.
As they were so loyal to the Party and the country, they could have the undying courage and the strength of charge far surpassing the law of human physiology, opt for their last that the world still fails to understand and display the scenes of laying down their lives for their comrades-in-arms.
The overseas military operations of our army were unheard-of activities conducted by the service personnel who upheld the order of the Party and the country not only according to the military discipline and morals of obedience and execution but also with their voluntary conscience and moral rights, the most sincere and beautiful men who burned their hearts with pure, strong loyalty and overcame the extreme limits with its infinite viability.
There was neither distinction between arms, duties, ages and military ranks nor difference between Party members and youth league members in their spiritual strength and feats.
The participants in the military operations lived in the world of heroes before becoming heroes after death and in the noble spiritual world of Party members before becoming Party members.
Not only the heroes who unhesitatingly opted for self-blasting, suicide attack, in order to defend the great honour, but also those who fell in the vanguard of charges and those who writhed in frustration at the failure to fulfil their duties as soldiers who were given orders, rather than in pain in their bodies torn by bullets and shells, cannot but be called the soldiers faithful to the Party, patriots.
It is said that for soldiers in battlefields, nothing is more honourable than feats and victories, but what is more sublime and valuable is the pure conscience dedicated to their Party and country and firm faith in them.
Our combatants knew that after they fell in action, their dead bodies might be left at the mercy of the wind blowing through the snow-covered forests in the alien land. However, they sacrificed their lives as they believed that their greatest honour was to contribute to implementing the orders and add to the prestige of their great country. If one tries to measure such an ideological feeling, both pure and beautiful, only with the yardstick of certain exploits, one will be underrating so many admirable soldiers' true feelings of love, tears and priceless sacrifices.
They are sons of our Party and our country, who, though fighting at the other end of the earth, could identify the roots of their lives only with such feelings of love and loyalty.
That is why we honour such intense loyalty to the Party and the country and the noble sacrificing spirit stemming from the loyalty - rather than any outstanding military exploits or feats - as symbols of our army's fighting efficiency and our country's heroism.
The memorial wall in this museum can be called an emblem of immortality for the martyrs who, though dead and gone, will live forever as shining examples for their fellow countrymen.
Glorifying the imperishable lives of the martyrs and their unchangeable soul, the stars on the memorial wall shine brightly day and night, and they will teach people the truth of immortality and help them understand the position and significance of this museum.
This museum is a colossal fortress in which the souls of these loyalists and their hearts burning with patriotism rest, as the whole world can see.
As a decoration dedicated to this land by our admirable sons, such a museum could not be set up even at a cost of millions of tons of gold.
As time passes, this museum will continue to bring the heroes closer to all the coming generations of our Republic, and our army's successors will warmly embrace the combatants, adding one page after another to the history of patriotism and loyalty lest their sacrifices be brought to naught.
The country supported by patriotic and loyal defenders will remain powerful and great for all ages.
Today's inauguration ceremony will be recorded in a page of history as a sacred event that has injected absolute immutability into our state's inviolable dignity and prestige.
Comrades,
In this museum we have recorded a new chapter in the history of DPRK-Russia friendship that was written in blood, the history of justice that was achieved at the cost of blood.
This symbolizes the steadfastness of succession and our will.
Our future is certain.
In order to defend national sovereignty and interests in the current rapidly-changing times, we should keep turning into a formidable rival to the enemy and we should unite and grow stronger to become formidable.
As I have mentioned on several occasions, we should develop ours into a genuine, devoted and powerful stronghold, always coping in united efforts with any crises irrespective of the time and place of their occurrence and of any change in the rules of war.
Peoples of the two countries aspiring after independence, dignity, peace and prosperity are desirous of this, and the history of fidelity and unity written in blood indicates this.
As that immortal group sculpture of the soldiers of the two countries shows, the times expect us to be always ready, to be able to devote ourselves and to be resolute like them.
In front of the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations born with our history of resolution, history of justice and obligation, we get firmer in our determination towards the future.
Comrades,
Our army will continue to fight bravely for the dignity and honour of its motherland, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Along with the history of defence we are writing with the sacred sense of mission and fortitude, this museum will shine in the world and the martyrs will live forever in the brilliant rays.
Sincerely hoping that the precious lives of our people's proud sons, great soldiers, will shine forever, I declare the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations open. -0-
www.kcna.kp (2026.04.27.)
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