It is said that from small acorns mighty oaks grow . This is certainly true of the Korean People’s Army . Watching the grand military parade for the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the great Workers Party of Korea in October 2025 seeing giant ICBMS and tanks rolling past , no one would guess that the Korean People’s Army originally began as a guerrilla force .
Once the anti-Japanese guerrillas were dismissed by the commanders of the Japanese imperialist forces as a “drop in the ocean “ but now the ICBMs of the Korean People’s Army can hit the US mainland and Japan could be destroyed by the DPRK . As respected Marshal KIM JONG UN said at the 9th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea “ I am sure to say: Ours is no longer a country that is susceptible to threats from others, and it has the power to threaten them, if necessary”. One can only marvel at the great advances that the DPRK has made in the field of national defence . When you look at the origins of the Korean People’s Army such achievements look incredible , in fact they tower high .
Although the Korean People’s Army(KPA) was founded as a regular revolutionary armed force on the 8th of February 1948 , its origins go back to the days of the fiery anti-Japanese armed struggle when it was formed as a guerilla force . Both foundation dates of the KPA are celebrated in People’s Korea.
It was on the 25th of April 1932 the President KIM IL SUNG founded the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army in the forests of Antu, Manchuria (many Korean people had been driven out of Korea by the ferocious Japanese imperialists so there were Korean communities throughout China and Manchuria ) .The Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army(AJPGA) was later to become the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army. So the KPA was originally founded as guerilla force.
President KIM IL SUNG had taken up the cause of liberating Korea from the horrendous rule of the brutal and oppressive Japanese imperialists . At the Kalun meeting of June 1930 he had put forward the line of the Juche-based revolution and the line of armed struggle .First the Korean Revolutionary Army was founded in July 1930 , then President KIM IL SUNG decided that the armed struggle should be expanded and developed in depth so the founding of the AJPGA became the order of the day and it was founded on the 25th of April 1932.
On the day that the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army .was founded President KIM IL SUNG declared to the meeting to found the AJPGA that
“The AJPGA is made up of the workers, peasants and young patriots who oppose the Japanese imperialists and their stooges and love their country and people; it is a revolutionary armed force which will dedicate itself to protecting the interests of the people.
The aim and mission of the people’s guerrilla army is to overthrow the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism in Korea and bring national independence and social emancipation to the Korean people.”
As stated above the AJPGA was totally different to the armies of the imperialist countries and also armies of bourgeois nationalists because it was composed of workers and peasants and had as its aim the achievement of not only independence but social emancipation as well .
The AJPGA fought against the Japanese imperialists using weapons that they have captured or had made themselves in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance such as the Yongil bomb( a hand grenade). In March 1934 the AJPGA became the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (KPRA). The KPRA fought many battles against Japanese imperialism, which was allied to Nazi Germany and fascist Italy , in order to liberate Korea from tyranny and oppression.. Among such battles were the 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 and on the 15th of August liberated Korea.
After liberation the creation of regular ,standing revolutionary armed force was made an important priority by President KIM IL SUNG and the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army was transformed into the Korean People’s Army on the 8th of February 1948 .
Under the wise leadership of the great generalissimo’s KIM IL SUNG and KIM JONG IL the KPA grew into steel strong ranks each soldier being a match for a hundred enemy soldiers. The KPA inflicted a crushing defeat on the US imperialists in the great Fatherland Liberation War(referred to as Korean War in the West) of 1950-1953.It was notable that the KPA was able to liberate Seoul the south Korean puppet capital in 3 days after the war started. The KPA also defeated the US in the acute showdown after the Korean War such as the ‘Pueblo incident’,'EC121 incident’, ‘Panmunjom incident’ of 1976 and the 1994 helicopter shoot down incident.
Under the command of respected Marshal KIM JONG UN the KPA faced down the US imperialists and ROK puppets in the tense situations that arose in the 2010s.
Fully inheriting the traditions of the anti-Japanese armed struggle the KPA is in fact a continuation of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army , it is totally different from imperialist and capitalist armies which both oppress the people and indulge in overseas wars of conquest . Today the KPA , stands guard over the socialist paradise of People’s Korea . We salute the 94th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army , the original revolutionary armed force of Korea.
Dr Dermot Hudson
Chairman British Group For the Study of the Juche Idea
Chairman of the Korean Friendship Association of the UK
Hon Secretary General Global Farmy Study Group for respected comrade KIM JONG UN’s People-First Policies
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