Kim Il Sung: Biography [2]

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BAIK BONG

DAR

AL-TALIA

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

httos://archive.org/details/kimilsungbiograp0002unse

KIM IL SUNG BIOGRAPHY

(I)

From Building Democratic Korea to Chullima Flight

_BAIK BONG

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1973

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the founder of the Party (See Section 2,

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The Pyongyang City mass rally was held to welcome Comrade Kim I] Sung who had returned home from the victorious battles. (See Section 3, Chapter 1)

Comrade Kim II Sung’s reunion with his grandmother (See Section 3. Chapter 1)

Comrade Kim II Sung discussing a draft resolution of the Third Enlarged Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Party Central Organizing Committee (See Section 1,Chapter 2)

Comrade Kim I] Sung addressing the First Conference of Representatives of the North Korean Democratic Youth League (See Section 2, Chapter 2)

Comrade Kim I] Sung working at the office of the North Korean Committee (See Section 3, Chapter 2)

Provisional

People’s

Comrade Kim II Sung talking with peasants in Daidong county, South Pyungan Province, prior to the enforcement of the land reform (See Section 4, Chapter 2)

Comrade Kim II Sung conducting on-the-spot guidance at the Hwanghai (See Section 4, Chapter 2)

Iron Works

Comrade Kim I] Sung delivering a report at the Inaugural Congress of the North Korean Workers’ Party (See Section

5, Chapter

2)

Comrade Kim Il Sung delivering a report summing up the work of the Committee at the Second Congress of the North Korean Workers’ Party (See Section 2, Chapter 3)

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Comrade Kim I] Sung announcing the Political Programme of the Government at the First Session of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (See Section 7, Chapter 3)

“Marshal Kim I] Sung, ever-victorious, iron- willed brilliant commander, Chairman of the Military Committee and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, who led the great Fatherland Liberation War to a shining yictory (See Chapter 4)

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Comrade Kim I] Sung encouraging warriors of the People’s Army who advanced southwards, beating back the U.S. imperialist aggressors (See Section 3, Chapter 4)

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Comrade Kim I] Sung conversing with Heroes and model combatants (See Section 4, Chapter 4)

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envelope which Comrade Kim II Sung had told him to give her to ease the burden of her travelling expenses. She went home to her village next day, walking on air. The villagers who had expected her to turn back halfway without success, were overwhelmed to hear that she had been received by the General in person. It was like a festival day to the whole village. That very night she called on the teacher of the people’s school and began her education. Not only during the day but even lying in bed at night, she was never without her book. When it rained, she wrapped the book in an oilpaper and read it in field. At home she marked everything in her room and in the kitchen with its name for identification. Other village women quickly followed suit. It was not long before she had to reserve a room for study, and there the villagers gathered to master their letters. The money given her by the Leader for travelling expenses was given for a school construction fund, so she dedicated herself even to the building of aschool. The whole village joined the battle against illiteracy and for the school building. The day was near when she had to fulfil the promise of a letter to Comrade Kim I! Sung. Many nights she sat up trying to write a letter carrying every detail of her life after meeting him. The day came when she had to send the letter, so in Pyunggang county a village rally was held, and from here an appeal went out to the entire nation to start a Li Kye San Movement for the elimination of illiteracy. Quickly it spread across the country.

Some days after she sent the letter to him, Li Kye San was surprised to receive a letter of extraordinary commendation and encouragement from him, followed by an official letter of commendation and a clock to commemorate the occasion. Filled 215

KIM IL SUNG

with a new feeling of happiness, from then on she devoted herself completely to the cause of the people and the fatherland. She went on to college and graduated, and later had the honour of being elected Deputy to the Supreme People’s Assembly. So, in response to the wise guidance of Comrade Kim I] Sung, Li Kye San climbed the ladder from a mere servant girl to become the mistress of her land and country,

a member

of the coun-

try’s leading functionaries. The illiteracy elimination movement developed by Comrade Kim Il Sung bore fine fruit. The northern half of Korea became, by March 1949, the first country in Asia to completely eliminate illiteracy. The avenues to learning from elementary and secondary schools to college were opened by the establishment of adult schools for the benefit of those who had already overcome illiteracy, and special attention was given to the enhancement of technical and cultural levels of all farming people. It was a grand plan, blueprinting the country’s future for a century ahead, and under this programme, Comrade Kim I] Sung pushed ahead with the work of educating the younger generation and raising national cadres. The starting point was the desire for each and every child in working and farming families who had long been barred from seats of learning, to have the opportunity of study so he developed the work

of construction

of schools into a nationwide movement,

meanwhile dropping in at local schools to acquaint himself with the living conditions of both teachers and students. Under this concentrated leadership and attention from Comrade Kim I] Sung, a common education system was soon established which quickly filled the gap that had been created during the rule of Japanese imperialism, that had barred more | than two-thirds of the children of school age from getting an education. The groundwork was thus completed under which 216

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a compulsory elementary education system could be introduced

from the first semester of 1950. The content of education also was completely reconstructed to meet the needs of the building of the new fatherland. In higher education also, under his farsighted concepts and specific leadership on the training of national cadres, in 1949 Kim I] Sung University and 13 colleges existed in the northern half, where there had not been even a single college under Japanese colonial rule. The care he took was beyond description, and the attention he gave to lift the education of the younger generation and the training of national cadres to still higher levels. In fact, immediately after his triumphant return to his fatherland he gave his special attention to these two tasks. On October 28, 1945, speaking before a gathering in Daidong county, South Pyungan Province, Comrade Kim II Sung said: “You must each contribute what you have to the construction of an independent democratic state; those who have knowledge contribute their knowledge, those who have skill their skill, and those who have money their money. To attain our goal, we will need more people of talent as the days go by. So, we have to build more schools.”’ After a meeting to welcome him, one of the group of peasants encouraged by his words, promised that he and his villagers would have a middle school built by their own efforts. Pleased to hear this, he gave detailed instructions on what to do and suggested that they go at once to see a building that they said could be turned into a school at once. His aides protested that it was time to leave but he went with the peasants to see the place and instructed them in detail how to proceed with the establishing of the school.

Proud of the task committed to them under his direct guidance, the people built eight classrooms and even a playground SIE

KIM IL SUNG

Comrade Kim II Sung receiving a bouquet at the ceremony celebrating the completion of the school buildings of Kim I] Sung University

in a matter of one month, and then sent their representatives to Pyongyang. Hearing that the school was built, he was greatly pleased, and encouraged them to teach the history of the Korean people, in the Korean language, using Korean letters, and if no proper textbook was available, the teachers themselves should jointly prepare a textbook. Physical education should also be taught so as to produce students of high moral character, he pointed

out. When

one of the teachers asked him to give a proper

name to their school, the name “Samheung training of talented knowledge, character

the country. 218

he pondered a while and then suggested Middle School.” “Samheung” implied the people vested with the three virtues of | and physique, to raise them as pillars of

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Comrade Kim II Sung gave top priority to reorganizing the work of training national technical cadres, where the need was greatest. With the warm heart of a loving father training a new generation, he gave special attention and effort to establishing and developing Kim Il Sung University—a palace of education and science. Some unsound elements took a negative attitude towards this task, and stubbornly opposed the idea of founding a university, their excuse being that no foundations yet existed for it

and that qualified professors were nowhere to be found. But, he said, although experience and a complete foundation are lacking, the work of training technical personnel urgently needed in the construction of an independent state could not be postponed, especially the task of establishing a university to provide a firm basis for their training. This bold determination was the result of his deep trust in the independent spirit of the Korean people. For the creation of the university, he invited scientists one by one scattered across the country. He met them personally and gave directions for their future activities, and so was able to organize the faculties of a university. Immediately after his triumphant return to his fatherland, he had prepared more than 70,000 books that would be required for the establishment of a university. The founding of the first university in the northern half of Korea on October 1, 1946 was completely identified with the work of Comrade Kim II Sung, so the North Korean Provisional People’s Committee, reflecting the unanimous will and hopes of the masses, decided that the new university was to be named. “Kim Il Sung University.”” The subsequent development of Kim Il Sung University in its every activity has also been associated with his name. In the spring of 1947 when millions of farmers delivered 219

KIM IL SUNG

their “patriotic rice,” he said that this precious fund “should be used for the education of the younger generation with a view to the long-range future of our country.” It was therefore earmarked for the construction of a new school building in Kim Il Sung University, and close attention was given by him not only to the university’s development but even to the details of the living of teachers and students. The development of science and technology was worked out according to his wise policy. It maintained the Juche position firmly, directing them from first to last to the construction of an independent national economy. He taught how to absorb the fruits of science and technological development already achieved by advanced nations in order to meet the actual situations of Korea. While the Koreans were still unable to develop science and technology, foreigners had built steam locomotives and ships and were utilizing them. But the ruling classes of the Li Dynasty were riding on donkeys, wearing crowns, and idly passing days and nights writing and reading poems. This was why their country was wrested from them by invaders, and they lost it. Reflecting upon this bitter experience ot the past, he made up his mind to have his country rise quickly out of this backward state and build a highly advanced scientific culture. To achieve this, he channelled much of the nation’s energy into the development of science and technology, giving scientists special care and making sure their living conditions were good.

One example is seen in his kind care for a doctor of biology. Not only did he send the scientist rare animals and fish which he had caught in hunting and fishing, to be utilized in biological studies, but in special attention to his health, for the doctor was

not young, he presented him with a sedan. He also gave hima hunting dog and the latest-model hunting gun which he treasured, with ammunition. 220

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This same paternal care was extended to innumerable other scientists working in various departments. Culture and arts, like education and science, also made

progress under his careful policy and explicit guidance. Culture and the arts he recognized as powerful means in rebuilding of the fatherland. He encouraged workers in these fields with the following words: “You are all champions fighting on the cultural front. You have the responsibility of using your speech and your pens to defeat those reactionary forces trying ‘to reverse the progress of Korean society. You have the responsibility of developing our national culture and educating the masses with your patriotic and democratic spirit. Whether or not we can crush the reactionary forces and build a new democratic Korea,

depends largely upon whether or not all of you can win in your battle on the cultural front.” He spared no effort in giving them. consistent encouragement.

The ment of “We heritage cultures

following statement makes his policy on the developnational culture and the arts clear: have to preserve what is excellent in our cultural while filling in the gaps where we lag. From the of advanced

nations,

we

have

to absorb

what

are

considered progressive and acceptable to the national character of the Korean people and use these for the progress of our own national culture and arts. This should prove the best road in the construction of a national culture.” He took one step further, and undertook fostering of the rank and file in literature and arts and organized various groups of literary men and artists. His guidance ranged wide and deep, reaching even to individual works of their creation. As an example one can cite the way the “Patriotic Song” (National Anthem) was written. It goes like this: Let morning shine over this Mother Earth PDeAT

KIM IL SUNG

Abounding in gold and silver Our beautiful fatherland of 3,000 77

Glorified by a history of 5,000 years: Heritage of shining culture And this glory of the wise people We'll guard Korea with our lives, This Korea for ever with our whole heart! This “Patriotic Song” which is easy to understand and profound in implications, is set to a solemn melody. Its theme, its words and even its music were created under Comrade Kim II Sung’s personal guidance. In the autumn of 1946, he met several writers and composers and set the guidepost for the creation of the “Patriotic Song” by saying: “Ours is a really beautiful country. It is surrounded by seas on three sides, and its mountains are imposing and noble. The farms yield all kinds of grain and fruit, and its underground resources are inexhaustible. We are a people proud of our long history of 5,000 years, a people resplendent with a shining culture. Our forbears, since the dim past, have successfully guarded with their own blood the mountains of our country. They fought against foreign invaders. Our anti-Japanese guertrillas took up weapons to fight the Japanese imperialist aggressors at the risk of their lives. Our working people, delivered from exploitation and suppression, have now taken a firm grip on the reins of power and are devoting everything to the construction of a prosperous and powerful state on the soil of this fatherland. The Korean people favoured with such a beautiful country and proud of such an excellent fighting tradition would have their national pride and self-confidence expressed in a tuneful — number.” PLS

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As instructed, the poets and composers took many days of effort and eventually the “Patriotic Song” was born. It was in June 1947 that this “Patriotic Song”’ was submitted in the conference room of the North Korean People’s Committee under his leadership. He took up the words of the song one stanza after another for discussion, and led it with the minutést

care.

He advised

that the last part starting “Heritage of shining culture” should be sung as a refrain, and added: “Since our country has a long history with a resplendent heritage of culture, how can we be content with that expressed in a single line? It would make it too dull. A refrain would not only effectively improve the rhythm and harmony of the music but also add to the solemnity of the song as a whole, and inspire the singer with national pride and self-confidence.” None of the poets and composers assembled there had thought of this until he pointed it out. When they repeated that part, however, it improved the song, and made it more impressive.

Because of Comrade Kim I] Sung’s intense patriotism and deep understanding of the importance of literature and the arts, the Korean people now have this fine “Patriotic Song.” His teachings covered the whole realm of literature and the arts. They became the programmatic guide for each branch in upholding its Party spirit, class spirit and popular spirit and raising its artistic quality. The “golden arts” which peoples of the world admire today had their new beginning immediately after liberation under his wise guidance, and by his boundless effort and proper guidance, the northern half has now come to full bloom in its national culture, built and consolidated on the democratic base, rock-firm.

Xe)bo Qo

5. Invincible Revolutionary Armed Forces—Birth of Korean People’s Army

COMRADE KIM IL SUNG, taking a far-seeing view of unification of the fatherland, and the nationwide triumph of the full Korean revolution in the wake of the socialist revolution then in progress, developed, side by side with political and economic

construction,

a movement

for

the

creation

of a

people’s army as a modernized military power, and personally stood at the head of the movement. Comrade Kim II Sung had already declared in the 10-Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, that in the plan “to organize a real revolutionary army fighting for Korea’s independence,” great weight must be placed on the question of creating a people’s army. He considered that the creation of a real army of the people was an indispensable condition for building Korea into a sovereign and independent state, because no nation lacking its own regular army could be called an independent state. After liberation in particular, when the U.S. imperialist aggressors, the masterminds of world reaction, had replaced the Japanese imperialists in occupying South Korea and were making a desperate attempt to turn the whole of Korea into their own colony by marshalling the reactionaries in the land and suppressing the South Korean revolutionary forces, the creation of a people’s army seemed the most urgent task to him, a question affecting the very destiny of the ee

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Korean people, and could not be neglected even for a moment. Comrade Kim I] Sung expressed his view as follows: “Our people can neither remain mere onlookers at the policy of national division of the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys, nor can we wait for anyone to give us independence and organize an army for us. The Korean people must build a democratic independent state entirely by their own efforts and make all necessary preparations for setting up a unified government. And they must organize their army on their own, thereby promoting the building of a unified, independent and democratic country.” So Comrade Kim II Sung regarded the creation of a modern

regular army as an integral link in the chain of effort needed for the victory of the Korean revolution, and took the revolutionary principle of national self-defence to be the very basis for national defence construction and a defence policy. The basic principle of national self-defence was the glorious embodiment of his great Juche idea, that the Korean revolution must be accomplished by the Korean people themselves, independently and with their own strength; it was the revolutionary line that Koreans must rely upon their own revolutionary armed forces for the accomplishment of this revolution. Comrade Kim II] Sung firmly upheld this revolutionary line of self-defence, and paid much attention from the very day of liberation to the problem of creating a revolutionary armed force for the Korean people, and he spared nothing for the attainment of this goal. But it was not easy to create a regular people’s army; there were many hurdles to be cleared. The enemy of the revolution, from the start, had been desperately trying to frustrate the creation of a revolutionary armed force. Factional elements criticized it, saying ““What need is there for an army when North and South are not yet unified?” 225

KIM IL SUNG

These were not the only hurdles. The material as well as technical foundations for arming a regular army were still very weak, and trained cadres but few. But in spite of this he judged that it was possible to create a revolutionary armed force in a short space of time, however great the difficulties might be, on the basis of the correct line for and rich experience in building the revolutionary armed force, experience gained during the difficult days of the armed struggle against Japan, and based on the revolutionary strength cultivated by him in the fierce armed struggles. Even in those days, while busy building the Party and the revolutionary democratic base, he directly organized and guided the preparations for the creation of a people’s army. Immediately after liberation, there were very few cadres available for any field of activity. But he picked most of the sturdy fighters who had been well-tempered in the flames of the armed struggle against Japan, and assigned them to the task of creating the army. He guided them so that they might play a leading role and become the backbone of the people’s army. In order to train new military and political cadres among workers and farmers, in November 1945 he founded the Pyongyang Institute which was the first military-political school in our

country,

and

in July 1946

established

a school

for

training the cadres of the national security forces to carry out technical training of military cadres. In August 1946, he created a number of training centres for the national security forces where he trained the first basic units for a regular army. This was a creative application of his past experience in training cadres, to the prevailing situation, experience gained during the anti-Japanese armed struggle, a measure aimed at creating a regular army in the shortest possible time. People who had been workers and farmers until yesterday, | in addition to youth and students, with a strong desire for 226

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national defence and burning with patriotism, came swarming to the school and training centres from every corner of the country, upholding the noble will of Comrade Kim II Sung. Even while engaged so deeply in the general guidance of the State, Comrade Kim II Sung frequently visited training centres for the national security forces, and whenever he visited a district to give guidance to local factories and farm villages he invariably dropped into the training centre of that district to encourage the trainees. In October 1946, he visited a construction

work

site for a

training centre for the national security forces. “Nice to see you,” said he grasping the hands of each of the trainees gathered around him. “Tt is not easy to build a new home. How much more difhcult it must be to construct a training centre designed to accommodate thousands of people when it is not easy to build even a home....” On inspecting the site, he asked them if they found the work too heavy, how many hours a day they were working, how many hours they had for sleeping, or if they thought their bedding and meals were inferior to what they had been used to in their homes, and he then invited them to speak out about any trouble without hesitation. The trainees answered that their daily life was not hard in comparison with the ill-treatment they had received from the Japanese imperialists before liberation, and that their strong desire was to get the construction work completed as quickly as possible and get into training there to become true soldiers of the Korean people. Deeply satisfied with this answer, he said: “You are right. Everyone should know his own conditions and do his best in his work with firm belief in it. What were our past circumstances? When the Japanese imperialist armed vandals trampled on our fatherland, slaugh227

KIM IL SUNG

tering our parents and brothers everywhere, how much we deplored the lack of an army of our own that could expel this enemy! How we longed for the day we Koreans would become a great nation with our own army! We must always bear in mind that bitter experience of the past and concentrate our best efforts on the construction of the people’s army....” That day, he studied every detail of any troubles found, and instructed the accompanying staff officers that they should pay attention to the building, first of all, to the bedrooms, diningroom and the kitchen. He even went into minute details. He talked with the officers and trainees about each problem that must be kept in mind in building the people’s military power, such as the right approach to military-political training, disciplined daily life, organization of daily schedules and the question of strengthening blood ties with the people. He also taught how to educate those who lagged behind in the collective life, and stressed the need to establish conscious

discipline in such a way as to suit the character of the army about to be born, and said: “What sort of army are we going to build? We are going to build a revolutionary army of the working class, which will fight against imperialist aggression, protect our people and defend our democracy. If an instructor should scold and strike

his students in anger in educating them or in everyday life as in an imperialist army, can we allow him to go on? If an officer tries to order about his rank and file under the excuse of military discipline or regulate their meal-taking by a single blow of a whistle, ordering them, for instance, to ‘eat up in five minutes’ or

to ‘stand up’ or ‘at ease’ according to the whim of the moment, he is but following the model left by the Japanese imperialist army. Instead, we must build up another sort of discipline to suit

the character of our army.. . 228

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... You must first feel like their parents in order to train them in anything. You must first tell them what you are aiming at and assist them in the effort to attain it, for them to realize, from the bottoms of their hearts, that no army can exist without discipline....” Again, he touched on the mission of the trainees and said:

“Your effort to become well-trained and the Party’s effort to build and strengthen the army as quickly as possible are both aimed at protecting the free labour and democratic construction of our Korean people, and ensuring their happiness and the development of a prosperous and strong fatherland. We must always bear this in mind.” The officers and trainees who that day received warm care and detailed instructions from him, were touched with great pride and self-respect, and stepped up the construction work and their military-political studies and took big strides in their activities and their daily living, upholding his programmatic teachings. He visited this training centre again in April 1947. Very pleased with the construction work being completed so quickly, he dropped in at the centre’s Nation-Building Room. There he noticed that there were few exhibits to show the results of democratic reforms and present a current picture of national economic development, and he made ihe following comments:

“‘We must learn more about things Korean and the accomplishments of the Koreans. By now we have already achieved successful results in national reconstruction so that we walk

with big strides, keeping abreast of other people.... In the past, those who were ignorant of the value of their

own assets and were envious of the possessions of other people destroyed our country, retarded our civilization and made our

compatriots shed much blood. If we go on ignorant of the value 229

KIM IL SUNG

of our own assets and don’t have our own

views, we

may

be

unable to put the country on a solid foundation, even if we

have achieved national independence.” Then again he stressed the importance of establishing Juche for the successful accomplishment of the revolution. Comrade Kim II Sung visited the firing range while practice was in progress, and approached the soldiers practising aiming. He said with a smile that he wanted to see perfect marksmanship. Then he personally took up a rifle and showed an example of aiming by way of encouraging them. Both officers and trainees, seeing with their own eyes Comrade Kim II Sung, the legendary brilliant commander of the anti-Japanese armed struggle personally

handling

a rifle, received a never-to-be-forgotten

impression to treasure for the rest of their lives. Their morale soared and inspired them to excellent records. In the shooting with automatic rifles, one entire squad hit the target without so much as a single bullet missing. He praised their marksmanship and sat down to talk with them. “Did any of you use a rifle during Japanese imperialist rule?” He pointed to one of the soldiers. The soldier nominated by him honestly confessed that he had formerly been unable even to pick up a rifle abandoned by the wayside, afraid it might explode, yet now he was reluctant to part with his gun even for a moment, and whenever he was handling a rifle, he made it a rule to use it as often as possible so that he could learn to handle it well. The General listened attentively to the soldier’s words and then said: “You are right! That is just the answer I expected. With firm conviction that you can discourage the enemy from attempting another attack, you should treasure your weapon like the apple of your eye, and know it in its minutest details.” 230

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That day, the men demonstrated their outstanding marksmanship not only with the use of sniping weapons but also with trench mortars. He pinned flowers, with his own hands, on the breasts of more than 200 excellent shooters, praising this regiment whose entire members won “excellent” for their shooting. Under this careful guidance and warm consideration of Comrade Kim Il Sung, a solid foundation of the creation of people’s military power was laid at the Institute, the school and the training centres. Ranks of efficient military-political cadres were formed through the Pyongyang Institute and the school for training cadres of the national security forces, while the backbone troops of the people’s military power were fostered through the training centres for the national security forces. Large numbers of youths hailing from the working and farming classes, whose hands until yesterday had never held anything but the hammer and sickle, were gradually trained into military-political cadres, fully conscious of their sublime duty of carrying on the Korean revolution. On October 26, 1947, the school for training cadres of the

national security forces which had been established at his own instance, and developed under his careful guidance, was to produce its first graduates. He attended the commencement ceremony and congratulated the new graduates, stressing the importance of their duty, especially at a time of grave crisis caused by the intrigues and aggressive manoeuvrings of the U. S. imperialists opposing the founding of a unified government for Korea, its sovereignty and independence and its democratic development. They were duty bound, he taught, to carry out their duty faithfully as officers of the army serving the country

and the people. He set out the direction of their activity after their assignment to units, and taught they should educate the rank and file 231

KIM IL SUNG

soldiers by showing an example for them to follow. Thanks to Comrade Kim II Sung’s well-considered measures and strong will as well as his extraordinary revolutionary sweep, the host of difficulties that had been besetting the creation of a people’s army were surmounted, and the way was gradually cleared to foster it into a regular army. The people’s military force, centering on the anti-Japanese

revolutionary fighters who had been raised, educated and tempered by Comrade Kim II Sung in their armed struggles against Japan, was about to be born as the army of the Leader and as the army of the Party, boundlessly loyal to Comrade Kim II Sung, the respected and beloved Leader of the Korean people, to carry out the revolutionary ideas of the Leader. At this juncture, the U.S. imperialist occupiers of South Korea exposed their naked hostility to the construction of a sovereign, independent Korean state. They saw, with intense dislike and enmity, the colossal achievements of democratic development in the northern half, and were not only engaged in slanders and false propaganda but infiltrated groups of terrorists specializing in manslaughter, incendiarism and sabotage into the northern half in an attempt to destroy the revolutionary base and throw the people’s living into chaos. These intrigues of the enemy assumed more and more serious proportions as the revolutionary base in the northern half grew stronger and the people’s victory assumed

larger proportions. After early 1948, in particular, they resorted often to undis-

guised armed violations of the northern areas along the 38th Parallel, engaging in desperate aggressive war provocations. In order to safeguard the gains of the revolution and take the initiative in speeding up the unification of the fatherland in defiance of the U.S. imperialists, Comrade Kim I] Sung judged 282

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that there was urgent need to declare to the entire world that the people’s armed forces which had been in preparation, were already established. This memorable day came at last. On February 8, 1948, amid the enthusiastic shouts of joy of the people, Pyongyang witnessed a military review which announced the might of the Korean People’s Army now established. In the square for the military review where bayonets bristled, Comrade Kim II Sung took the platform, always smiling, constantly waving his hand in reply to the rank and file passing with an imposing gait before him, and to the people raising enthusiastic cheers. It would be impossible adequately to describe the emotion of Comrade Kim I] Sung who, after 15 long years of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, years of pain and _ hardship unprecedented in the history of guerrilla warfare, could at last see the regular revolutionary army before his own eyes. The shouting people were choked with pride and excitement at the sight of their own regular army, the tears rolling down their cheeks. They shouted: “Long live General Kim II Sung!” “Long live the Korean People’s Army!” Indeed, the founding of the Korean People’s Army was the

realization of the long-cherished dream of the Korean people who had languished for a half century, trampled down by the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism.

After reviewing the stately columns of soldiers passing before him, Comrade Kim II Sung addressed the people on “On

the occasion of the founding of the Korean People’s Army.” In this historic speech he pointed out the significance of the creation of the Korean People’s Army, the first armed force in Korea’s history, on the very day on which, two years earlier, 233

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the Korean people had established their own State. He said: “No independent state is without its own army. Naturally no state can attain conaplete independence: without its own army. Our country was occupied by the Japanese imperialists because our people at that time had no army of their own strong enough to defeat the Japanese imperialist aggressors.” Comrade Kim Il Sung spoke about the most significant. feature of the newly established People’s Army. “The People’s Army we have founded today is an army of a new type, fundamentally different from that of a capitalist country.

The army of a capitalist country is organized to defend and maintain by force the system of oppression and exploitation of the working people—who constitute the absolute majority of the population—in the interests of a handful

of capitalists and

landlords, and to attack other nations and invade the territories

of other countries.... In contrast, the army we have founded today is a genuine people’s army, organized with the sons and daughters of the Korean working people, workers and peasants. It fights for the liberation and independence of the Korean people and for the happiness of the masses against the imperialist aggressive forces from abroad and the reactionary forces at home. Therefore, should any enemy attempt to infringe our country’s freedom and our people’s happy life, the men of our People’s Army will fight to the last drop of their blood to defeat the enemy and defend our country and people. This is the most important feature of our newborn People’s Army.”’ Another characteristic feature of the People’s Army, he said, ist

“... Though our People’s Army is founded today as a regular army of democratic Korea, in reality its historical roots date far back. It is a glorious army inheriting the revolutionary traditions of the anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare, the valuable fighting 234

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experience gained and the indomitable patriotic spirit displayed inate Because it is armed with the glorious revolutionary traditions and is their direct inheritor, the Korean People’s Army is so much the more conscious of its great honour and its pride in it. Precisely because of these features, the People’s Army finds its. exalted obligation and mission in safeguarding its fatherland and totally destroying any aggressor. Comrade Kim I! Sung’s historic speech was followed by resounding cheers from the audience. To the accompaniment of martial music, a stately parade of the People’s Army began, the armed ranks made up of the country’s sons and daughters. These invincible troops, with shining bayonets and resounding footsteps, in formation after formation passed by in a stately parade before the platform where he stood. The cheers they raised, looking up to him, rocked the heavens and earth.

The marching soldiers—sons and daughters of the people who had experienced the hardship of slavery—were now burning with a firm determination to sacrifice even their precious lives if necessary to safeguard the new system and happiness which they had won. They were spearheaded by the seasoned veterans who had participated in the anti- Japanese armed struggle. So the revolutionary armed power of the Leader and the Party was born, ready to defend to the last all that Comrade Kim Il Sung, the Leader of the Korean people, and the Workers’ Party stood for. They were the true revolutionary armed force, the people’s armed force whose noble mission was to protect the class interests of workers and farmers, to safeguard the socialist revolution and socialist construction and the gains won

in the northern

half, and to win the unification

of the

fatherland and a nationwide victory of the revolution. No one could match this army! No matter what the enemy 285

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and no matter how savage the aggressor, none could contend successfully against this army with its great revolutionary traditions and burning with this revolutionary enthusiasm. The Korean People’s Army led by Comrade Kim I] Sung— the legendary iron-willed brilliant commander and military strategist of genius! The enemy who would dare to challenge this army would be a pirateship doomed to dash itself against a cliff in a high stormy sea and be smashed to pieces. It was indeed a glorious triumph won in the struggle for construction of an abundant and powerful independent state of the working class and the entire people, who had now firmly grasped power in their hands,

and were gathered

around Comrade

Kim Il Sung, holding high his great revolutionary ideas. It was indeed an important event of epoch-making significance for the people’s revolutionary struggle towards a bright future of socialism and communism. In this establishment of the People’s Army, the Korean

people grew from a bullied and despised people with no armed might, deprived of their own land by alien imperialist aggressors, into a strong and dignified people whom no one could slight, an ingenious people of a worthy independent state who could safeguard their own security and their fatherland independently. The establishment of the Korean People’s Army was a source of great joy not only to the Korean people themselves, but also to the revolutionary peoples of the East and of all the

world. It was a great encouragement to the oppressed peoples of Asia and those who had shaken off colonial rule. It was the first declaration of the creation of a regular revolutionary armed force in the East by the Korean people, who had regained their power. But still the Leader and founder of the People’s Army could not rest satisfied with it. He paid careful attention to its devel236

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into an invincible force, thoroughly equipped with ideas and military techniques. He said: founding of the People’s Army is only the first step building up a powerful, modern armed force of the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which will be established in the future. It means that we have built only the

framework. That is why all the people as well as the military personnel must do everything iin their power to strengthen and develop the People’s Army so that its invincible might ae be demonstrated to the world.” In particular, he aimed at developing this army into an army of cadres, each man being a match for a hundred enemies, into

a modernized great revolutionary army. To this end he gave the necessary militant tasks to its officers and men. First, he aroused them to their mission with boundless

love

for their fatherland and the people, and to arm themselves with the spirit of complete devotion to the freedom of the fatherland and the happiness of the people. He strengthened the political and ideological education of his forces, so that they might learn from the high patriotism of the veterans of the revolution and foster the spirit to love, respect and

trust

one

another

and

be united, build

up

their

cou-

rageous and revolutionary spirit, and establish steel-like discipline. With a view to qualitatively strengthening the army ranks, Comrade Kim I] Sung intensified the education of cadres of the People’s Army through the established military academies, giving deep attention to the development of military science, and techniques adapted to the characteristics of modern warfare the terrain of Korean mountains and hills, and other natural and

geographical features of the country and the improvement of the equipment of the troops. In order to produce weapons by the Korean people’s own 237

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strength and to arm the People’s Army with them, even in the face of the economic difficulties of the country, he ordered munition factories established for the production of arms and ammunition. Because of these measures taken by him, within a few years after liberation, the Korean people were able to produce many types of snipers’ weapons,

ammunition,

explosives, shells, etc.

with which to arm the People’s Army. When the first batch of automatic rifles were produced, he was overjoyed, and made a present of them to four of his comrades including Kim Chaik and Kang Kun who had been his companions since the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, and he had a commemorative photograph taken of him with these comrades. The birth and growth of the Korean People’s Army, an invincible revolutionary armed force, was the realization of the great concept of Comrade Kim I] Sung who, dreaming of his country’s future amid the blizzards of Mt. Baikdoo or by the campfire in the dense forests, had gradually laid the foundations for the creation of a people’s armed force. It was also a glorious victory for his unique

Juche

ideas and outstanding military

thinking. It was the fruit of his noble passion and his scrupulous, warm care for the building of a people’s armed force. Without this iron-clad Korean People’s Army founded and brought up by Comrade Kim II Sung, it would have been impossible for our people to defeat the U.S. imperialist army, boastfully self-labelled the “mightiest” in the world, through three years of fierce war, safeguard the freedom and independence of our fatherland, and firmly sustain with credit the eastern outpost of socialism.

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6. North-South Joint Conference

AS THE REVOLUTION and construction advanced amid victories in all spheres of politics, economy and military affairs, the northern half was gradually strengthened and developed into a reliable bastion of the Korean revolution and a firm base for the unification of the fatherland. In accordance with the line and policy he had made clear at the Second Congress of the North Korean Workers’ Party, Comrade Kim I] Sung vigorously pushed the revolution and construction forward in the North, while leading the people to

a struggle to destroy the U.S. imperialist policy of splitting the Korean nation, and their conspiracy to hold a “separate election” and to cook up a “separate government” (the regime to be rigged up as a result of the separate election). He was clearing the way for the popular masses to wage a decisive struggle for the independent unification of the fatherland. The independent unification policy indicated by Comrade Kim I] Sung completely accorded with the then prevailing situation of the country and was in complete agreement with the unanimous desire and aspiration of all the people of both North and South Korea. The minds of the 30 million people, except those traitors and pro-American, pro-Japanese reactionary elements slavishly serving U.S.

imperialism,

were

all turned

towards

Comrade 239

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Kim II Sung, the sun of the nation, and passionately supported the unification policy worked out by him In this way, a great change took place in the relations between the forces of revolution and counterrevolution. The people of the northern half, always faithful to the appeal of the Leader, vigorously held demonstrations and mass rallies opposing the “United Nations Commission on Korea” which had come into South Korea. They opposed any foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Korea, and made it clear to the world that they were determined to unify their fatherland independently. The patriotic people of South Korea, also supporting the appeal of Comrade Kim Il Sung, their respected and beloved Leader, stood up in a struggle to save the country. The February 7 national salvation struggle of the South Korean people, which was developed under the slogan “UNCOK, get out!” dealt a heavy blow to the U.S. imperialist policy of splitting the nation, and clearly demonstrated the strong will and desire of the people for fatherland unification and independence. As the revolutionary upsurge of the masses mounted, including workers and farmers, the uncommitted political forces gradually inclined towards the side of the revolution. The U.S. imperialists and their tools were thus isolated from the masses. Within the reactionary ruling class, too, contradictions and conflicts were creating a deepening chasm. As Comrade Kim II Sung’s just and fair policy of peacefully unifying the country became widely known, and as the antiAmerican national salvation struggle of the South Korean people mounted, serious vacillations arose even within the rightist camp.

Taking this change in the situation and relations of forces into correct consideration, Comrade Kim II] Sung, with a view |

to crushing the U.S. imperialists’ plot for “separate election” 240

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and to achieving national unification, took the offensive and positive measures for unifying and consolidating all the patriotic democratic forces of both North and South Korea. He called for a joint conference of political parties and social organizations of North and South Korea. This conference would not only isolate the U.S. imperialists and their agents from the Korean people and crush the U.S. imperialist manoeuvrings to split the nation, but it was also to be of great significance in uniting all the patriotic, democratic forces of North and South Korea under the banner of the independent unification of the country, leading to the formation of an anti-American national salvation united front. Indeed, this policy of Comrade Kim II Sung’s was the most wisely conceived and aggressive policy for surmounting the present difficulties, and opening up a new phase for national unification. The political parties and social organizations affliated to the United Democratic National Front of North Korea joined in appealing for the holding of a North-South joint conference as proposed by Comrade Kim II Sung. He made clear his position that he would join hands with any political party, social organization or individual who opposed the planned “separate election” engineered by the U.S. imperialists in South Korea, and supported the peaceful unification of the fatherland, saying that he would not question the past records of anybody who had committed a crime before, if only he was willing to fight for the country’s independent unification against the United States. This bold and generous position and appeal of his caused farreaching repercussions among the political circles of South Korea, where the people responded to it with enthusiastic support. In this way, not merely the political parties and social organizations affiliated to the United Democratic National Front 241

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of South Korea but also part of the middle-of-the-road_ political parties, right-wing political parties and even stubborn anticommunist right-wing nationalists stood up to support the Juche-oriented patriotic appeal of Comrade Kim II Sung. The enemies, both internal and external, were feeling uneasy and alarmed at this development, and obstinately manoeuvred to frustrate the calling of the joint conference. The U.S. imperialists and their cat’s-paws made frantic efforts to stop the spread of his policy among the South Korean people for the independent unification of the fatherland, and ruthlessly suppressed the political parties, social organizations and individuals who supported the North-South conference. Pak Hun Yung and his gang also interfered with the preparations for calling the joint conference. When it was proposed, they pretended to support-it, but covertly and indiscriminately they prevented even those middleof-the-road political parties which were fully entitled to participate in the proposed conference from doing so; they manoeuvred to sabotage the conference, at the same time agreeing to send to it, if unavoidable, just a handful of persons who had the inside track with them. In order to defeat these underhand moves and enable all political parties, social organizations and individuals opposed to the U.S. imperialist plot of establishing a separate puppet regime to take part in the joint conference, Comrade Kim Il Sung put vigorous activities into operation. He personally sent men to these political parties, social organizations and individuals in South Korea to explain to them tirelessly again and again the policy of national unification and the aim of the joint conference, encouraging them to join. Under the positive activities of Comrade Kim Il Sung, not only the Communists but also representatives of middle-of-theroad political parties and even some bigoted right-wing nationSED

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alists, who till then had been preaching anti-communism, announced their intention of joining the North-South conference, and they headed for Pyongyang, defying all kinds of sabotage and suppression by the U.S. imperialists and their tools. These included Kim Koo, Kim Kyoo Sik and Kim Wol Song, men in

their seventies. “Who dares to stop my going to those fellows are frantically trying ever, it is indeed good news that the are going to hold a joint conference

my own country? When to divide my country for people in the northern half of North and South, and have invited me to the meeting with the aim of discussing how to surmount the present difficulties. Hearing of this, how can I stay idle even if I am already 70 years old and Pyongyang a long way off?” This was said by Kim Wol Song when he started on his trip to the North; but the feeling was not confined to him. Indeed, when a bona fide invitation is received to a gathering of a nation to discuss ways of surmounting the difficulties facing it, and when one is gravely concerned over the future of one’s nation, how can one hesitate to join such a gathering because of some difference or other in political opinions or creeds or because it is a long way to go? National difficulties must be overcome by all means. Let’s go to Pyongyang where General Kim II Sung is! They shared this same feeling as they started for Pyongyang. So from April 19, 1948 at a theatre located on the mountainside of historic Moranbong in Pyongyang, the Joint Conference

of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations in North and South Korea, was attended by representatives of 56 political parties and social organizations from North and South Korea. The conference was followed with keen attention all over the world and great expectations were held by the Ko243

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reans for it. The meeting was an unprecedented national event; it united all the patriotic, democratic forces of the Korean people with a single goal, irrespective of differences in political opinions or creeds. It proceeded, from the beginning, in a harmonious . atmosphere.

Comrade

Kim

of the

Il Sung, the wise Leader

Korean people, gave a report on the prevailing political situation and the tasks to be fulfilled for peaceful unification of the fatherland. Taking the rostrum amid roof-raising cheers and applause, he made an analysis of the present situation and pointed out that: “It is the biggest political task for our people today to reject and frustrate the anti-democratic and traitorous election now being plotted in South Korea,” and then added, with emphasis: “In this struggle embracing the entire nation, all people, regardless of party affiliation or religious creed or political persuasion must be united if they are really concerned over the destiny of the country and the people, for unity alone can ensure our final victory.” He followed this up with a proposal that the conference should discuss the measures necessary to save the nation by achieving national unity and solidarity, and frustrating the “UNCOK” plot to split the country permanently, and the so-

called “separate election” it was engineering in South Korea. The Korean people should be able to achieve the historic cause of establishing a democratic unified government. He went on to appeal in the following words: “At this grave juncture when our fatherland is in danger of being split in two, we must know that we will be committing an indelible crime against our nation and posterity unless we

unitedly fight against it or unless we take some drastic measures to crush U.S.

imperialist aggression, and save the country.

We must make all-out efforts to develop nationwide strug-

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gles to construct a unified sovereign and independent state, and to set up a unified government based on democratic principles.” Comrade Kim II] Sung’s report was a beacon to a bright future for the crisis-ridden fatherland. It threw all the representatives gathered from North and South Korea into a storm of emotion and excitement. The shock the representatives from the South received from his speech was especially dramatic. They had been accustomed more to listening to theories than to seeing action, and in their

own speeches, to playing with flowery language without substance. When they heard Comrade Kim II] Sung’s report, they felt their patriotism aroused for the first time. They realized that what they heard was profound political eloquence revealing to them the correct approach to national salvation. Even the rightist leader Kim Koo uttered exclamations now and then during the speech and was seen nodding constantly. Finally he was so overwhelmed with emotion that he could not even raise his silver-grey head. Stung by his conscience, reflecting on the many long years he had trodden wrong paths, he appeared to make up his painful mind to live a new life for his remaining years. Incapable of announcing his own political view, he merely mumbled incoherently and deplored his lack of learning and incapacity, saying: “I couldn’t learn.” The several scores of representatives who joined the debate that followed his report, unanimously supported his proposed policy, despite their differences in class, strata of society, political views and personal creeds, and expressed their determination

to fight firmly united for that policy. The joint conference unanimously adopted a “Resolution on the political situation in Korea,” organized the All-Nation Struggle Committee Against Separate Elections in South Korea, and made public “An appeal to our fellow countrymen of all Korea” calling for a national salvation struggle aimed at frus245

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trating the election. The historic North-South joint conference which, thanks to Comrade Kim I] Sung’s active role in it, succeeded in uniting the patriotic forces of the nation, ended with the drawing up of a plan for all-out efforts for national salvation. Although all representatives present expressed satisfaction with the conference, those from South Korea were particularly moved by it, because, for the first time, they had come into contact with Comrade Kim Il Sung, the sun of the nation, whose appearance they had long waited for and because they had received his wise personal guidance. Comrade Kim II Sung, on his part, heartily welcomed the representatives from the South who had come to the North at the risk of their lives, and abstained from saying even a single word of rebuke about their past actions, and in addition, highly appreciated the patriotic action they had taken by making such a long and dangerous journey. He sent his men to the 38th Parallel to receive these representatives of South Korea. When Kim Koo and Kim Kyoo Sik arrived late at the meeting place, he suspended the meeting for a time in order to welcome then. Even during the sittings of the conference, he took warm care of the representatives of South Korea. Concerned about their health, he paid careful attention to their quarters and diet. He took deep care so that they could get enough rest. He took further care so that they could utilize the recess hours during the conference or after the session to travel freely through North Korea, including Pyongyang, and visit Mangyungdai, the Hwanghai Iron Works, Kim II Sung University, the School for the Revolutionary Martyrs’ Children, the National Motion Picture Studio and other economic, educational and cultural institutions and facilities, as well as sites of democratic 246

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construction. Everything they saw and heard was a source of deep emotion for the representatives from the South. Kim Kyoo Sik, who saw the actual conditions of national economic construction in North Korea, at a welcome party given by Comrade Kim I] Sung, compared North and South Korea as follows: “T have seen here that North Korea has already laid the foundations for self-sufficiency. While in the South, factories are closed and production suspended and only the American loan is being brought, here factories are operating. While the South is to be compared to a disintegrating family, the North is like a new family that has arisen and is on the road to happiness.” ; The representatives from South Korea could not conceal their love and respect for Comrade Kim I] Sung who was leading the people on the path to victory, and their joy over having such a wise person as their Leader. “T was surprised to see that North Korea has made long strides in every domain of construction in a short period of two years or so.

To cite the Hwanghai Iron Works alone, which

I

visited, the Koreans who took over that factory in a state of devastation from the savage Japanese imperialists, have managed it with their own efforts and are producing more than when it was being operated during the Japanese imperialist rule. Witnessing this, I realized once again the excellence of our nation, and it strengthened my belief in our capability for sovereignty and independence. Indeed, General Kim II] Sung is the wise Leader of our people. The fact that, under the guidance of General Kim, the various projects of democratic construction in laying the groundwork for our fatherland’s sovereignty and independence are being pushed to successful completion, is eloquent proof of this.”

This was the opinion expressed by a representative of the 247

KIM IL SUNG

Korean Language Research Association. But this was not his personal opinion only: it was the view of the representatives of all the political parties and social organizations who came from South Korea. A representative of the Kunmin Association later commented on Comrade Kim II Sung as follows: “I was greatly impressed by his open-hearted yet modest character. But especially I was impressed by his noble virtue and style with which he tried to learn from, as well as give guidance to, the people any time and anywhere. Each time I came into contact with him, I invariably strengthened my opinion that he was par excellence the Leader of the Korean people, endowed with wisdom, benevolence and valour. During the tortuous course of my life which covers more than a half century, starting with those days of the Volunteer Struggle, I made tours of Asian and European countries large and small, and met many so-called ‘top-notch’ men and ‘heroes’ but have never yet encountered such a true leader of the people as the General.”’ This admiration was not his monopoly. Kim Koo who attended the joint conference, after meeting Comrade Kim II Sung, came to believe firmly that he was the very sun of the nation and the only Leader of the Korean people. He made up his mind to part with his stubborn, narrow-minded opinion about the Communists. After meeting Comrade Kim II Sung, Kim Koo frankly expressed the following opinion: “Visiting here, I have been entirely enamoured of North Korea. In Shanghai as well as in South Korea, I met many Communists. But I feel their North Korean counterparts are something different. I had always imagined that all Communists | were bigoted, useless fellows, but now I have found all of you generous and tolerant and easy to work with. By all means, I 248

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want to cooperate with you.” Even in later days, Kim Koo did not change the determination he made that day. He is reported to have repeated this story to whoever understood him, and established friendly terms

by way of recalling the warm heart of Comrade Kim II Sung. One of the stories he always liked to tell his close friends runs as follows: “None but this man is destined to rebuild Korea. When I was in China, I heard that General Kim was defeating Japanese imperialists. But I merely thought that that man was a young military strategist of great talent. My thinking did not change even after the August 15 Liberation. But General Kim I met in Pyongyang was not merely a talented military strategist but a young, great statesman.

A hero rarely appears in history, but it is a rare thing indeed in a history of several thousand years for such a great hero as he to make an appearance. But that hero has appeared in Korea. Since J met him for the first time, I can not ever part with him. Every morning as I wake up, I think of nothing but to see him again. When he talked of Korea’s future, I saw clearly the course Korea should and would follow.” On April 23 while Kim Koo was still in Pyongyang, he paid a call at the house at Mangyungdai where the Leader was born. He had imagined that the house would be an imposing mansion. So he was amazed to find it to be a poor straw-thatched cottage the like of which was seen everywhere in rural villages. He was amazed for the second time to find his grandfather aged 70 was engaged as ever in farming. That day his grandfather was making a fence in the yard Kim Koo was greatly astonished at the sight. He asked the grandfather how could he, whose grandson was the Leader of the nation, be doing such heavy work? 249

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The grandfather is reported to have made the following answer: His grandson is the national leader, yes. But he himself is a farmer. As the ancient people said that farming was the mainstay of the country, he should do it well so that his. grandson might be enabled to attend to politics well. Kim Koo, later in life, repeatedly told this story only to his close friends, often with the following additions: “Tt was indeed a commonplace farmer’s house. Therefore it is not accidental that he should have sympathy with farmers. Korea can be happy only if led by General Kim I] Sung. If I had known that the true nature of communism was represented by the government of General Kim, how could I have opposed communism/s

Reflecting upon the path | had walked till then, I felt ashamed of having advocated anti-communism and shouted ‘independence’ or similar slogans with no substance, and that, in disregard of the existence of the General! So I proposed to the General to give me an orchard so that I might do farming work under his guidance.... I will follow General Kim II Sung, walking in his path, for this is the very path our nation should take.” Kim Koo was thus captured by his character and personality. Since the time when he, leader of the right-wing political circles, had a seat on the then nominal Provisional Government in Shanghai, he had been proud and bigoted enough to behave himself as its leader by cloaking his anachronistic anti-communist ideals under traditional nationalism.

Even

such a person,

once he had a sight of this young Comrade Kim II Sung, was. led to surrender to him all his utopian ideas and his so-called “legal orthodoxy.” This man who went against the currents of the times due to. his reactionary class position and political prejudice and so fell behind in the darkness of his ignorance, was now reborn as an 250

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enlightened human being in the rays of the shining sun of the nation, Comrade Kim Il Sung. He was not the only example of such an experience. Everyone that met him could not but bow before his great political and personal virtues. Even the bigoted Kim Koo was converted. That other politicians of middle-of-the-road groups in the political spectrum and conscientious representatives from the South were impressed by Comrade Kim I] Sung is easy to imagine. After the conference, they started on their homeward journey filled with high-keyed national pride and a renewed will to fight. The conference, as Comrade Kim I] Sung had firmly believed, guaranteed that all political parties and social organizations of different political views could be united under the leadership of the Workers’ Party for the unification and independence of the fatherland. This fully testified to the correctness of the Workers’ Party’s policy as presented by Comrade Kim II] Sung on the united national front and on the unification of the fatherland. It once again demonstrated his wisdom in providing leadership. It also demonstrated to all quarters inside and outside the country that the Korean people now had their wise Leader, and under his guidance they could solve their problems with their own strength. The joint conference, by consolidating the broad, patriotic, democratic forces in Korea into the ranks to fight and surmount the crisis of a national split and establish a unified democratic government, opened up a new vista in the struggle for such a government and for the country’s unification. In Pyongyang and other places in the northern half, mass meetings and demonstrations were held by people of all social circles and strata who supported the resolution of the joint conference and condemned the “separate election” in South In the South, too, labour strikes and school strikes Korea. 251

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occurred in rapid succession and riots broke out everywhere protesting the “separate election.””» The people who stood up in every corner of South Korea raided the polling places and police substations, destroying and burning them, and notorious police were executed in many places. All political parties and social organizations with a national conscience, whether leftist, neutral or rightist, refused to accept and attacked the traitorous “separate election.” Through this series of intensified struggles involving the entire nation, the “separate election” scheduled for May 10 ended in complete failure. This was a resolute demonstration of the solidarity and patriotism of the Korean people, and a great victory for them.

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7. Declaration of the Founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

THE U.S. imperialist aggressors resorted to all possible methods and means to extricate themselves from the predicament in which they found themselves, and to continue to place South Korea under their control in order to realize their aggressive ambition against Korea by any means. Despite the fact that the traitorous so-called “separate election” was completely frustrated in the face of the vigorous. national salvation struggles of the Korean people, the U.S. imperialist aggressors cooked up what they called “election” results and a separate puppet regime headed by the traitor Syngman Rhee was spawned. The separate puppet regime in South Korea was a product of the policy of national division and neocolonialism, followed by U.S. imperialism, set on attaining its aggressive ambition against Korea, a regime in name only, fabricated as an instrument of colonial rule over South Korea. A new stage in the aggression of U.S. imperialism against Korea was thus ushered in, and with it the crisis of national division deepened. The situation demanded that active and decisive measures be taken to unify the country to prevent the territorial division of the country and the splitting of the people. To meet this situation, on the results of the revolution and construction achieved in the northern half in three years since liberation, and relying on the patriotic zeal of the masses de253

KIM IL SUNG

veloped in the course of the struggle against the “separate election,” and on the broad revolutionary forces in North and South Korea who were united around the Party, Comrade Kim Il Sung judged that it was necessary to implement as soon as possible the Party’s political line on the founding of a democratic people’s republic, a line shaped to meet the prevailing situation. Comrade Kim II Sung said on this: “If we, under the present situation, should wait for the U.S. armed forces to withdraw from South Korea and do nothing while the pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation in South Korea are strengthening their treachery and their reactionary regime, we would be committing a crime against the nation and posterity that could never be erased. If we do not

take decisive measures for national salvation, the Korean people will bear a lasting grudge against us. We should establish a supreme legislative organ of all Korea immediately, representing the will of all the Korean people and put through a Constitution of a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. We should not establish a separate government but a government for the whole of Korea, consisting of representatives of the political parties and social organizations of both the North and the South.” He submitted to the Political Committee of the Party a proposal to hold a general election covering both halves, and organize a supreme legislative organ by immediately founding a democratic people’s republic. This policy was in complete agreement with the political line of the Party and the policy of independent unification, which he had already proposed. It was only by implementation of this policy that the legal power representing the interests and will of the entire Korean people could have been established, and the illegality and reactionary nature of the puppet regime 254

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in South Korea thoroughly exposed and isolated from the people. The struggles of the North and South Korean people for unification of the fatherland would be heightened to a new plane under the banner of a democratic people’s republic. Further, it would have forced the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops ‘to pull out of Korea; would have created conditions favourable for independent reunification of the fatherland, and would have further strengthened solidarity with international revolutionary forces. Comrade Kim II Sung’s policy on the founding of a democratic people’s republic was unanimously approved on June 29, 1948, by a council of leaders of the political parties and social organizations in North and South Korea and was immediately translated into action. Prior to founding a democratic people’s republic, he promoted work for merging the Workers’ Parties in North and South Korea The merger of the North and South Korean Workers’ Parties was urgently demanded because of the need to ensure unified leadership of the Workers’ Party for the revolutionary forces in North and South Korea, under conditions where all the democratic and patriotic political parties and social organizations in both North and South Korea were strengthening united action and the representatives of both parts were to participate in a democratic people’s republic which was to be established

shortly. It was also a question of extreme urgency in order to save the South Korean Workers’ Party which had lost its fighting capacity for all practical purposes, due to the anti-Party and counterrevolutionary factional activities of Pak Hun Yung and his followers. It was faced with total destruction under the offensive of U.S. imperialism and the Syngman Rhee clique. In August 1948, Comrade Kim II Sung took steps to create Central Committee of the North and South Korean Joint a 255

KIM IL SUNG

Workers’ Parties, because of the need to establish a unified system of leadership for the revolutionary forces of North and South Korea in a general election. (The North and South Korean Workers’ Parties were completely merged in June 1949.) Comrade Kim II Sung energetically led a campaign to ensure the holding of a general election in both North and South Korea and to win victory in it. He held a council of leaders of political parties and social organizations of North and South Korea in June 1948 to strengthen unity of action of the Workers’ Parties, democratic parties, social organizations and uncommitted people, and organized and mobilized the entire people for the general election. On August 23, just before the election, he gave a speech before eligible voters in the Seungho electorate, Kangdong county, South Pyungan Province. He emphasized the importance of the general election, and appealed to all those who loved the fatherland and the people, and who wanted to make the coming

generation

the masters

of

a

prosperous,

strong,

democratic and independent state, to participate in the general election and vote for the candidates jointly supported by the United Democratic National Front.

The general election was successfully held on August 25, 1948 in different ways in North and South Korea. In North Korea 99.97 per cent of all the eligible voters took part in the election. The patriotic people of South Korea, defying fascist suppression by U.S. imperialism and its agents, positively participated in the election of Deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the supreme legislative organ of all Korea. As a result, 572 Deputies were elected in North and South Korea. It was a great demonstration of the political might of the entire Korean people closely rallied around the Party and the Leader. On the results of the general election, the historic First Ses-

sion of the Supreme People’s Assembly was heldin Pyongyang 256

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in September 1948. The Supreme People’s Assembly declared the founding of and adopted a Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. This event was one never to be forgotten in the life of the Korean people, a most auspicious result. The Korean people announced the name of their State proudly to the entire world, the first Constitution of the people in their history. The Constitution of the Republic not only consolidated on a legal basis the democratic reforms and revolutionary gains made in North Korea, but it was also a programme of struggle for the South Korean people. The First Session of the Supreme People’s Assembly organized the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as the supreme executive organ of power, and elected Comrade Kim I! Sung Premier of the Cabinet and Head of

State. The election of Comrade Kim I] Sung as Head of State reflected the united will of the whole Korean people. They considered it an honour without bounds and a source of great happiness to have as Head of State, Comrade Kim II] Sung, the great Leader and sun of the nation, who had liberated their fatherland through his 15-year anti-Japanese armed struggle, and had unswervingly led the Korean revolution to victory. Their conviction was that only Comrade Kim I] Sung, looked up to by all Korean people as their accepted Leader since the 1930’s, could unify the broken fatherland and divided nation, and that the 30 million Korean people could live as one family in boundless happiness only under his wise guidance. Looking up to Comrade Kim II Sung as one people, the one whom

they had elected

Head

of State,

and

enthusiastically

hailing him with boundless trust and devotion, the people of Korea burned with firm determination to give him their unchanging loyalty.

|

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He announced the Political Programme of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the First Session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the main points of which can be summarized as follows: FIRST, the Government of the Republic will unite all the Korean people firmly around the Government and mobilize them for a struggle to unify the fatherland, and at the same time will make all possible efforts to realize the simultaneous withdrawal of both the Soviet and U.S. armed forces from Korea, as the precondition for territorial integrity and national unification. SECOND, the Government of the Republic will take all

measures necessary for complete elimination of the evil effects of Japanese imperialist domination over the political, economic and cultural life of our country, and at the same time will fight against all intrigues of the imperialists and traitors to the nation who attempt to make a colony of Korea again and to destroy the democratic system created by our people. THIRD, the Government of the Republic declares invalidated all laws framed during the days of Japanese imperialist rule, and all the undemocratic and anti-people laws and ordinances of the puppet government of South Korea, and will fight to further consolidate and develop the various democratic reforms implemented in North Korea and to have them enforced throughout the whole of Korea. FOURTH, the Government of the Republic will liquidate the colonial subordinate nature of the economy and construct Korea as a prosperous, strong, democratic and independent state, constantly improve the welfare of the Korean people by opposing the policy of colonial economic subordination imposed by foreign imperialists, build an independent national economy that will ensure our country’s independence and prosperity, draw up a single people’s economic plan, and will positively develop the national economy and national culture according to that 258

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plan. FIFTH, the Government will attach great importance to education, culture and health preservation. In the field of education, the Government will take measures to enable children under school age and not attending school to receive education, substantially expand the networks of lower and higher middle schools, and will introduce a compulsory primary education system by 1950. Further, in order to produce a large number of able national cadres needed in all demains of the people’s economy, the Government will construct

tutes and colleges,

more technical instiestablish a large number of various kinds of

schools for working people, and will publish many kinds of publications in large quantities. Hospitals and clinics will be set up at enterprises and in rural villages to develop health preservation work for the people. SIXTH, the Government will further strengthen

local peo-

ple’s committees, the political basis of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in North Korea where they are already organized, and will fight to restore such people’s committees in all areas of South Korea where they were once organized but were disbanded by the reactionary forces. SEVENTH, in foreign policy, the Government of the Republic will endeavour to enter into friendly relations with all freedom-loving nations that will respect the freedom and independence of our nation and will accord equal treatment to us as

an equal member of the world democratic camp. EIGHTH, the Government of the Republic will strengthen in every way the People’s Army to safeguard our country from foreign forces of aggression and to defend the achievement of the democratic reforms already won in North Korea.

This Political Programme, thoroughly independent and based on Juche ideas, was a revolutionary programme of the people, reflecting the law-governed requirements of the development of 259

KIM IL SUNG

the Korean revolution and all the national aspirations of the Korean people. The founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was a tremendous victory for the Korean people, achieved through the unity and cohesion of the patriotic, democratic forces, an event of epochal significance in the history of our nation. Regarding the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Comrade Kim II Sung said: “On the basis of the great socio-economic changes in the northern half, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was founded in September 1948 according to the general will of the entire Korean people, amidst a nationwide struggle against the U.S.

imperialists and their stooges, whose colonial enslavement

policy and manoeuvres to split our nation had become even more pronounced.” The founding of the Republic enabled the Korean people to consolidate the people’s power still more and to complete the state system of a people’s democracy in an overall way, and to make their debut as from that time on the platform. of international affairs as a full-fledged, sovereign nation. Furthermore, the founding of the Republic demonstrated in a tangible way that the Korean people were completely capable of independently achieving the unification of the fatherland and winning independence, and set a new stage for the struggle of the Korean people for the purpose. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was erected as a shining edifice by the general will of the patriotic Korean people, who had raised high this banner for a new, unified, independent Korea, the banner of struggle for a complete victory of the revolution. It was a beacon of hope and struggle for all overseas compatriots, beginning with our 600,000 Korean compatriots in Japan, suffering persecution — under Japanese reaction.

Korean compatriots in foreign countries, boundlessly happy 260

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in the consciousness that they now had a glorious fatherland and that Comrade Kim II Sung, the father of the 30 million people, was leading the Korean people from victory to victory, showed new fighting spirit and energy and courageously upheld their national rights and freedom. The founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was also a major international event.

This birth of a new socialist state in the East was a great victory for the peoples of the world fighting for peace, democracy and socialism, and a deadly blow at the aggressive forces of imperialism, headed by U.S. imperialism. The Republic, towering high in this corner of the East, shedding its brilliant light out to the world, was the greatest gain of the Korean people, led by Comrade Kim II] Sung, the great Leader, and became a beacon of hope for the colonial, national liberation struggle of the revolutionary peoples in Asian, African and Latin American countries. The Republic began to march shoulder to shoulder with the other socialist countries on the international arena, and its prestige was steadily enhanced. All over South Korea, posters reading, “Long live General Kim Il Sung!” “Long live the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!” “U.S. armed forces, get out of Korea!” “(Down with the Syngman Rhee puppet government!’ were put up, and the campaigns of the people against the United States and the puppet government were vigorously developed. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, bearing the aspirations of the 30 million Korean people, was founded by Comrade Kim I] Sung in this way. Its impact was to arouse all the people to a struggle to achieve independent unification of the fatherland under this banner, and the issue of national unification reached a new stage. The main spearhead of the U.S. imperialists was directed 261

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against Korea at that time, because they were seeking an outlet from the political and economic crisis caused by an economic slump which swept the entire economy of the United States in and after 1948. They sought it in the militarization of the economy and provocation of a new war. The U.S. imperialists entered into various aggressive “‘agreements” aimed at subordinating South Korea still further, politically, militarily and economically, and on November 30, 1948, they used the puppet National Assembly of South Korea to conclude.an “‘agreement on the long-term stationing of U.S. armed forces in South Korea.” At the same time they desperately expanded land, sea and air bases in various parts of South Korea and concentrated new efforts especially on the organization and strengthening of the puppet “national defence army.” “It would require two hundred thousand well-trained men to occupy North Korea.” So said the “Stars and Stripes” of September 7, 1948. In June 1949, just nine months later, John J. Muccio, U.S. Ambassador to the “ROK,” called the Defence

Secretary and the Secretary of Justice of the South Korean puppet government to his office and told them to “make adequate preparations,” emphasizing that “the march to the North is the central question of U.S. policy on the ROK.” In this way, military “aid” of U.S. imperialism to South Korea was substantially increased in order to rapidly boost the strength of the puppet army. The strength of the puppet army, which had consisted of five brigades at the time when the “defence patrol corps” was renamed the “national defence army,” climbed to eight divisions by September 1949 and numbered 150,000 men by June 1950. Preparations for aggressive war were accompanied by fascist terror and brutal suppressive measures against the people. | Indeed, the murderers, the U.S.

slaughtered 262

more

imperialists and their lackeys,

than 100,000 patriotic people in the seven

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TO

THE

SOCIALIST

REVOLUTION

months from July 1949 to January 1950. They carried out more and more armed provocations against the northern half of the Republic to divert the attention of the people who had risen up in the struggle for national salvation, and greatly intensified tensions. There were 432 cases of armed infiltration into the northern half of the Republic from January to September 1949 alone. So the dark clouds of war were cast over South Korea, the bugles blowing for a “march to the North.” The international situation was extremely complex. Led by U.S. imperialism, world imperialists were manoeuvring to split the international communist movement by instigating the revisionists, at the same time strengthening their policy of aggression and war preparation with their “anti-communist” rackets in a big way. With deep insight into the situation at home and abroad, Comrade Kim Ii Sung even more intensely led the independent struggles of the Korean people to crush the moves of U.S. imperialism to provoke an aggressive war, and set out to win the peaceful unification of the fatherland, closely linking these struggles with the strengthening of solidarity with the international revolutionary forces in the anti-American, anti-imperialist fight, and defending the purity of Marxism-Leninism. The situation at that time called for the urgent creation of an international environment favourable to the Korean revolution and for the unification of the fatherland. Comrade Kim IJ Sung consistently upheld the policy of firm unity with the peoples of the countries of the socialist camp, positively supporting the national liberation struggles of the colonial peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America and strengthening solidarity with them. He stood for strengthened solidarity with the international revolutionary forces in the anti-American, anti-imperialist struggle. This was the basis of the foreign policy of the 263

KIM IL SUNG

Party and the Government. At the same time, in order to cope with the intensified

war manoeuvres and provocations of U.S. imperialism, he undertook a vigorous drive against the revisionists who had degraded themselves into being servants of imperialism. So he raised again the banner of struggle against the United States and imperialism. Warning against underestimating the plots of the imperialist forces, headed by U.S. imperialism, to provoke a new war, he made clear the principled stand the Communists were required to maintain in the struggle to prevent war and defend peace.

He said: ‘It is a great mistake and harmful to the cause of peace to rashly conclude that the danger of war has receded only because the camp of imperialism has been weakened and the camp of democracy strengthened. It is impossible to defend peace unless struggles against the war incendiaries are correctly organized and developed, however much the freedom-loving peoples of the whole world may desire peace. In order to prevent war and safeguard peace, it is necessary to energetically develop struggles in all parts of the world to expose, reject and oppose the war incendiaries and plunderers.” This was a highly principled stand on war and peace, a thoroughly anti-imperialist and revolutionary position, stating that peace cannot be maintained just by praying for peace; that peace can be won only by developing uncompromising and active struggles against the imperialist forces who are frantically engaged in new war provocations. While strengthening solidarity with the international revolutionary forces, he concentrated on strengthening the internal forces of the Korean people from all angles. Primary importance was given to strengthening still further 264

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TO THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

the revolutionary democratic base in the northern half of Korea, the key to the unification of the fatherland, politically, economically and militarily, rallying firmly around the Party the patriotic and democratic forces of South Korea. The aim was to develop the struggle, involving all the Korean people, against the United States, and to achieve national salvation by driving out the U.S. imperialist aggressors from South Korea. Comrade Kim II! Sung repeatedly taught the people that in order to get rid of the danger of national division and fratricidal war and to liberate South Korean people, it was necessary to get rid of the U.S. imperialists, the main cause of this danger, from South Korea. He said: “The most important and urgent task before the Korean people today is to force the U.S. armed forces to pull out of South Korea immediately. Once the U.S. armed forces are withdrawn, the Korean question will be solved according to the will of the Korean people, without confusion and without difficulty. To compel the U.S. troops to withdraw immediately is synonymous with the struggle to win freedom, independence and unification for the fatherland, the struggle to promote the interests of the entire nation. Korea belongs to the Korean people, and the Korean question must by all means be solved by the Korean people themselves. All the Korean people who love the nation and desire to see their fatherland unified must boldly arise in the struggle, that is, the whole Korean nation, to drive the U.S. forces from our soil.” Considering this all-nation campaign against the U.S. imperialist aggressors to be the central link in the chain of struggle to achieve national unification and territorial integrity, Comrade Kim I) Sung took measures one after another to open doors to unification, while carrying through the strategic line of strengthening the internal revolutionary forces of North and South 265

KIM IL SUNG

Korea, the line which he had upheld consistently. The United Democratic National Fronts in North and South Korea were unified in June 1949 at the direct instance of Comrade Kim II Sung, and the Inaugural Meeting of the Democratic Front for the Unification of the Fatherland was held. It covered middle-of-the-road and even some right-wing political parties and social mass organizations of South Korea, in addition to the former members of the two united fronts. The meeting adopted a declaration incorporating the policy on national unification made clear by Comrade Kim I] Sung— the policy of forcing the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops to quit South Korea immediately, to drive out “UNCOK,” an instrument of U.S. imperialist aggression, and the holding of a general election in North and South Korea without external interference, and the peaceful realization of national unity through the efforts of the Korean people themselves. This declaration incorporated the Juche stand on the unification of the fatherland, which Comrade Kim I] Sung had steadfastly upheld. Herein lay the power of the declaration that moved the hearts of all Korean people. The people of both North and South Korea as one voice supported this declaration and even more vigorously rose in the struggle against the United States and for national salvation. Alarmed at the daily mounting movements of the people for unification, U.S. imperialism and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique created new tension by declaring a “state of emergency” over South Korea early in 1950, and at the same time concentrated the puppet armed forces along the 38th Parallel, to get them ready for a “jump on the North.” At the same time, armed infiltrations were more frequently carried out against the northern half, particularly in areas around Byuksung county, Hwanghai Province, and in various parts of Kangwon Province. Our fatherland faced an extremely critical situation. 266

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To meet this, Comrade Kim I] Sung paid special attention to the defence buildup, and at the same time did everything possible to fulfil the desire of the Korean people to prevent war and to unify the fatherland peacefully. In, June 1950, the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Unification of the Fatherland, at his instance, issued an appeal to the political parties, social organizations and social workers of South Korea, which proposed the holding of a general election in North and South Korea on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the August 15 Liberation, and to organize a supreme legislative body. The U.S. imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique did everything possible to prevent this proposal from becoming widely known among the political parties, social organizations and social workers, committing barbarous atrocities, arresting, imprisoning and murdering people even for just saying the

words “peaceful unification.” Comrade Kim I] Sung never for a moment relaxed his struggle to prevent war and achieve national unification peacefully. He took renewed measures, and the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly proposed to the “National

Assembly” of South Korea that the unification of the fatherland be achieved by unifying the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the “National Assembly” of South Korea into a single legislative organ for all Korea. The conscience of the world was moved keenly by this bold

proposal, made in ardent love for their compatriots, and the earnest desire of Comrade Kim II] Sung to prevent the tragedy of fratricidal war and to achieve peaceful national unification. The peoples of the world sincerely hoped that this deep desire would be fulfilled. But the answer of U.S. imperialism and the Syngman Rhee 267

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clique to this deep desire of the Korean people and the peoples of the world was the launching of a cursed, criminal aggressive war, for which they had long been preparing.

268

CHAPTER

4

IRON-WILLED BRILLIANT COMMANDER WHO DEFEATED U.S. IMPERIALISM

1.

Carrying the Destiny of the Fatherland

AT

DAWN,

on

Sunday,

June 25, 1950, heavy rain was

falling along the 38th Parallel. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled in the dark, threatening sky. Suddenly a new, deafening roar rose above the elements. The roar of guns from south of the 38th Parallel, with their jets of flame, opened up and they pumped their shells into the northern areas of the

Republic. In the wake, all the divisions of the Syngman Rhee puppet army had assembled along the Demarcation Line under the command of the U.S. Military Advisory Group, and they now started a frenzied all-out attack on the northern half. Using the Syngman Rhee puppet army in a frontal attack, U.S. imperialism opened up, by deliberate provocation, a piratic aggressive war against the Korean people. It was a war imposed upon the Korean people by surprise attack, and although the Syngman Rhee puppet army was used as the spearhead, the prime mover and puppet master of the war was U.S. imperialism, the war-maniac.

U.S. imperialism, the invading enemy, was a bitter opponent, not easy to defeat. It was the ringleader of world reaction, the international gendarme, the bulwark of modern colonialism,

the vicious boss of imperialism. This is the enormous vampire that sucks the blood of innumerable people, until satiated. Brutalized in the extreme and bloated to the full by their conMET

KIM IL SUNG

tinuous aggressions, committed more than 100 times since they

swept into being on a gale of murder and plunder, they are fierce wolves that do not hesitate to commit any atrocities by force of arms in order to save themselves from the precipice to which history has doomed them. These U.S. imperialists, using the Syngman Rhee puppet army as their shield, pounced on the infant Republic which was then only two years old, aiming to sweep it away at one stroke. It was a blatant extension of the strategy of U.S. imperialism aiming at world conquest, part of their policy of aggression against Asia, a totally unjust war. U.S. imperialism, which had emerged as ringleader of the international reactionary forces right after World War II, embarked upon a full-scale attempt to achieve their old ambition for world domination. To this end, they followed their policy of strength, laying siege to and attacking the socialist camp and suppressing the colonial, national liberation struggle. They attempted to subvert the newborn socialist states of Asia and complete their occupation of Asia as a link in their chain of world strategy. The U.S. imperialists regarded Korea as a bridgehead and top strategic base for their aggression against Asia, so they pursued their vicious policy of extending their rule over Korea. The Asian strategy of U.S. imperialism was a policy aimed at ruling Asia, considered to be the best capital and commodities market in the world, and the policy of occupying Korea was in order to rule Asia. Issuing from this strategy, from the first day the U.S. imperialists occupied

South

Korea,

they had

been

hell-bent on

preparing for a war designed to invade the northern half and take over the whole of Korea, carrying out the policies of military aggression and colonial enslavement. But following the line of the creation of a democratic base, 272

IRON-WILLED

the

thoroughgoing

Comrade

BRILLIANT

COMMANDER...

anti-imperialist

revolutionary

Kim II] Sung, the revolution

line

and construction

of

were

pushed ahead, and in the northern half of the Republic the political, economic and military might had been strengthened with eath passing day, and under this influence the national salvation struggle had been vigorously waged also in South Korea. This was a telling blow on the aggressive policy of the U.S. imperialists. The U.S. imperialists were set on launching a war of aggression in order to destroy the daily developing and prospering Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. This was necessary if they were to put their original aggressive plan into practice.

At this same time, U.S. imperialism was caught up ina whirlwind of terrible financial panic, which had started from 1948. As one U.S. economist confessed, “Without some new step, there was fear that the political and economic crisis of the United States would blow up.” The U.S. imperialists found the escape from the crisis in the war and development of war industries. Thus Van Fleet was able openly to declare that “Korea has been a blessing. There had to be a Korea either here or some place in the world.’ Proceeding from these direct factors, the U.S. imperialists made more desperate efforts to invade the northern half of the Republic in 1950. Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Command, called the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique to Tokyo on February 16, 1950, and gave an 11-point war instruction on - attacking North

Korea

before

July.

Moreover,

the U.S.

im-

perialists converted the large Japanese heavy and chemical industries into war industries from early 1950 and let MacArthur get control over them. What came to light in particular were the words and deeds of John Foster Dulles, the special envoy of the U.S. President. 273

KIM IL SUNG

Dulles had participated in the behind-the-curtain talks on lighting the fires of war, held on June 19 in Tokyo with the US. Secretary of Defence, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Command. He said on

June 22 that “The United States will take “some positive action’ in a few days in the Far East.”

Prior to this, on June 18,

he appeared at a position at the 38th Parallel, and, staring at North Korea, he praised the puppet army, saying, “Let alone the enemy, not even the strongest army is able to counterattack you.” With his mind on the aggression planned for just a week ahead, he clamoured that “The day is not far off when you will display your might.” Meanwhile, the U.S. imperialists had prepared in advance a “U.N. draft resolution on the question of the ROK,” and took hasty measures a few hours before they launched the war, to get 650 American women and children then in South Korea on board a Norwegian boat, which was lying at anchor at Inchun Port.

The Korean War broke out against the background of these careful and premeditated measures of the U.S. imperialists. Despite this, on the day when the U.S. imperialists triggered the war, it was ironical to hear them, like a thief, calling “Stop thief,” saying that “The United States cannot but express its surprise,” that “The United States has received a surprise attack not less than in the incident of Pearl Harbcar,” and that it is an “incident not in the least expected.” It clearly showed the U.S. imperialists outdoing Hitler by far in their cruelty and craftiness. By igniting thc Korean War, the U.S. imperialist scheme was to achieve by force and violence their delayed and longcherished ambition, and bring to a conclusion their 100-year history of aggression against Korea by a piratic victory. Their .

aim was to topple the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, stamp out all the achievements of the democratic reforms, 274

IRON-WILLED

BRILLIANT

turn all Korea into their own whence

The

to pounce upon

Republic

was

COMMANDER...

colony and a logistic base from

the continent.

confronted

with the gravest

Everyone was faced with the issue of life and death. The was whether to defend their sovereignty, wealth and future as a happy and free people or to die amid toil and as colonial slaves of the U.S. imperialists, a homeless called by a number instead of their own name.

danger.

choice bright sorrow people

Facing up to this test, Comrade Kim II] Sung lost no time in confidently taking countermeasures to crush the enemy without wavering, carrying the destiny of his country and his people on his shoulders.

In the name of the Government of the Republic, he warned the enemy on June 25 that if they did not at once stop their aggression, he would take decisive retaliatory measures, but disregarding the warning, the enemy expanded the war. So Comrade Kim II] Sung issued the order to the officers and men of the People’s Army to launch a decisive counterattack. Directly inheriting the glorious revolutionary traditions of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, the Korean People’s Army was fully prepared to crush any aggressors. At once they moved south, gathering momentum as they went, and without the slightest confusion, giving the enemy not a moment’s respite. They smashed severely the Syngman Rhee puppet army, mercenaries of the U.S. imperialists, which had advanced one to two kilometres north of the 38th Parallel all along the front. It was a powerful, decisive and flawless counteroffensive, though undertaken at once. From the moment the People’s

Army moved over to the offensive, the enemy went down like ninepins and began to show their heels, panic-stricken.

It is almost unprecedented in the history of war of the world, the military strategy of Comrade Kim I] Sung, who shifted the People’s Army to the counterattack at once, when taken by 275

KIM IL SUNG

surprise by the enemy. Looking back on past wars, we see that a country which suffered a full-scale surprise attack would be thrown more or less into confusion and compelled to retreat, and would initiate its counterattack after holding the front and preparing its strength for some time. But Comrade Kim I] Sung moved the People’s Army over to all-out offensive and dealt a blow at the oncoming enemy along all the front, not piece-meal but full scale. This unique strategy was worked out and put into practice only by Comrade Kim I] Sung, the legendary hero of the anti-Japanese armed struggle and brilliant military strategist. The strategy of immediate counterattack devised by Comrade Kim I] Sung was a powerful demonstration of the great vitality resulting from the line of creating the revolutionary democratic base put forth by him. It revealed how the working class who had seized political power had prepared for the imperialists and their war, and what action had to be taken by them to meet the attack of the aggressors. To crush an invading enemy decisively face to face, and answer the aggression of the enemy with the revolutionary liberation struggle—this firm principle he has followed since the anti-Japanese armed struggle. In tke 1930’s he organized the guerrillas with only a few comrades-in-arms at the beginning, without supply bases and the backing of a regular army, and fought the Japanese imperialists, trained and expanded the guerrillas in a life-and-death struggle against the Japanese imperialists and worked out his own strategy and tactics. Though it was arduous beyond description, it was the “Japanese Army” that was terrified and defeated at last, and it was Comrade Kim II Sung and the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army led by him that won the victory. Now he had the State, the Party, the People’s Army, the regular armed force, founded and built up by him in person, plus an awakened revolutionary people. For 276

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Comrade Kim I] Sung calling upon the entire nation to rise in the sacred struggle for smashing the U.S. imperialist armed aggressors and their stooges

this reason he knew he could successfully crush even the U.S. imperialists, loudly boasting about being the “strongest” in the world. It was his firm conviction that though ferocious and crafty, the plunderers could on no account be considered wise. He believed firmly that though the U.S. imperialists could produce the army and bombs to demolish the buildings of Korea and claim the lives of the people, they could not destroy the steel-like

Party of the Korean Communists nor the socialist system, the law-governed product of social development nor turn back history. The enemy could not estimate Comrade Kim I] Sung, the great Leader and iron-willed brilliant commander whose genius had evolved the strategy and tactics, in the process of smashing 277

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the tens of thousands of the enemy, in deep adversity over a long time, nor could they know the inexhaustible strength of the Korean people united rock-firm around him; much less could they break it. The war fought by the Korean people was a Fatherland Liberation War of justice for the defence of the freedom and independence of their homeland against the imperialist invasion; war for the emancipation of tke South Korean people and the unification of the fatherland. It was at the same time a sharpening of the class struggle against the internal reactionary forces,and a revolutionary war in defence of the people’s democratic system.

It was also a fierce anti-imperialist and anti-U.S. struggle against the united forces of world reaction, led by the U.S. imperialists, a struggle to protect the peace and security of the world and to hold firm this eastern outpost of the socialist camp. On June 26, Comrade Kim II] Sung called an emergency Cabinet meeting and took emergency measures.. That same day he made an historic appeal over the radio, calling on the entire people and the People’s Army to achieve victory in the

war. In his radio speech, Comrade Kim II Sung presented the militant tasks for victory in the war to the entire people and to the People’s Army, sharply analysing the war situation and clearly elucidating the character of the war, the means of carrying it out and the outlook on its development. Talking of the aims of the enemy and the objectives of the Korean people in countering them, he said: “Through the fratricidal war, the traitorous Syngman Rhee gang seeks to extend the anti-popular, reactionary regime in| South Korea into the northern half of the Republic, and rob our people of the gains they have won through the democratic 278

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reforms.... The traitorous Syngman Rhee clique wants to make our country a colony of U.S. imperialism and make the entire Korean people slaves of U.S. imperialism... In this war against the Syngman Rhee gang the Korean people must defend with their lives the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and its Constitution; overthrow the traitorous puppet regime in South Korea and liberate it from the reactionary rule of the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique; restore in South Korea the people’s committee, the organ of genuine people’s power, and accomplish the cause of national unification under the banner of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The war we are fighting...is a just one for the country’s unification, independence, freedom and democracy.” He laid before them the militant tasks of the People’s Army and the people in the northern and southern halves of the Republic as follows: “Our People’s Army must display courage and devotion in the just fight for defending to the death the gains of the democratic reforms in the northern half of the Republic, liberating our compatriots in South Korea from reactionary rule and unifying the country under the banner of the People’s Republic. ...All the officers and men of the People’s Army must fight to the last drop of their blood for the country and the people. The people in the northern half of the Republic must reorganize all work and put it on a war footing and devote all their efforts to the achievement of victory in the war, in order to wipe out the enemy as quickly as possible. ...In order to ensure victory at the front, the rear of the People’s Army should be consolidated as an impregnable forTress a...

Men and women guerrillas in the southern half of the Republic must step up guerrilla warfare, move vigorously and BLS)

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more bravely and, enlisting the masses to their detachments, set up and extend the liberated areas. ...Compatriots in the southern half of the Republic should defy the puppet Syngman Rhee government orders and instructions, sabotage them and throw the organization of the enemy’s rear into confusion.” Every word of the speech was a hot-blooded appeal to make the People’s Army and the entire people into sentinels and heroes. He concluded his historic address with the following prophecy filled with confidence and militant slogans: “The history of mankind reveals that a people which daringly rises in struggle for freedom and independence is always victorious. Ours is a just struggle. Victory will surely be on the side of our people. I am confident that our just struggle for the sake of the country and the people will certainly be trium-

phant. The time has come for our country to be unified. Let us valiantly march forward with firm confidence in victory. Do everything in your power to assist the People’s Army and the front! Direct all efforts to defeating the enemy! Long live the Korean people who have risen to take part in the just war of the whole nation ! Long live the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! Let us march forward to victory!” This historic radio address by Comrade Kim II] Sung showed the revolutionary stand on the thoroughgoing anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. struggle to crush and destroy the American aggressors and their stooges, the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique, to the last and to liberate the southern half of Korea under the unjust war of aggression ignited by the U.S. imperialists. Through the speech there rang the most resolute independent 280

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note, standing for the overthrow of the ringleader of imperialism who boasted of being the “strongest” in the world, fighting to a finish with the total strength of the Korean people, bent on winning the final victory. The address touched and stirred the hearts of the people to an heroic struggle, and instilled the spirit of the phoenix into the hearts of the officers and men of the People’s Army, moving fast to the smoking front lines, to the resounding roar and boom of guns. The Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly elected Comrade Kim I] Sung as Chairman of the Military Committee and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, to the expectations of the entire people. Taking upon himself the destiny of his country and people, Comrade Kim I] Sung rose in new determination to carry out the great historic mission entrusted to him by the people at this stern and dangerous time.

The eyes of the world were on Korea. It was the focus of world attention, with the key to world issues lying there. The peoples, political leaders, the world press and military authorities of all countries watched Korea where one bloody battle after another was being desperately fought. Before an alarmed and tense world, Comrade Kim II] Sung, the great Leader of the Korean people, came face to face ina showdown with U.S. imperialism swaggering about its strength. It was a most bitter and decisive confrontation with a fateful outcome. What would be the result? The world judged according to its own values. The pro-American ruling circles of all capitalist countries thought without doubt that the United States would quickly win. Well, they had full freedom of expectations and conclusions, but they made a grave miscalculation. Comrade Kim II Sung, Supreme Commander, leading front 28 1

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and rear by wise and far-seeing leadership, was in a position to laugh at their prophecies. Answering the call, the whole country moved radically over to a complete war footing. All authority was concentrated in the Military Committee. Emergency measures were adopted at lightning speed, measures such as the proclamation of combat preparedness, enforcement of the decree of war mobilization, reorganization of the system of leadership by the People’s Army, the work of reinforcing all leading departments at all levels with anti-Japanese fighters, the formation of new divisions and expansion of units of all technical weapons, preparations for reservists, reorganization of the economy and the rear base for prosecuting the war and a written call of the Party Central Committee to all organs of the Party and the entire membership to rise in the national salvation struggle. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was still young and the people in general had no experience of modern warfare. But raising again the traditional revolutionary. banner of self-reliance, already held firmly since the anti-Japanese armed struggle, Comrade Kim I] Sung organized and mobilized every vestige of human and material strength of the Republic in an even more militant way. In the military strategy adopted he held fast to the principle of combining the advance of the People’s Army with guerrilla struggles in the rear of the enemy.

He mapped out a strategic line to frustrate the enemy invasion and switch over to the counteroffensive, a plan to swiftly annihilate the main force of the enemy and liberate the people of South Korea, before the U.S. imperialist aggressors could reinforce with massive armed forces. This was his strategic plan in the first stage of the war.

Issuing from this strategic plan, Comrade Kim I] Sung clarified

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the immediate strategic and tactical tasks of the combined units of the People’s Army. The units of the People’s Army were to advance on three fronts covering the western, central and eastern parts. The main attack was directed against the western part of the front, and the other fronts were to cooperate successfully and guarantee free moving supplies so that the front could be deepened and broadened constantly. Following the strategy laid down by Comrade Supreme Commander, the People’s Army moved forward in high spirits, smashing the enemy and giving no respite, advancing south and still south at devil-defying speed. In one stroke the People’s Army in the main attack wiped out the resisting enemy in the areas of Dongdoochun and Pochun and liberated Euijungboo on June 26. On the right flank, the combined infantry units operating in the western part of the front, liberated the Ongjin and Yunan peninsulas, the salient of Central Korea stretching to the West Sea, Kaesong, an historic old capital, Jangdan and other areas; on the central part of the front they threatened the

north of Kapyung and Choonchun, and on the eastern front, Kangreung. The whole front south of the 38th Parallel from the coast

of the West

Sea, rich in bays and marshes, to the

coast of the East Sea along which the steep Taibaik Ranges extend through Central Korea, rich in plains, valleys and paddy fields, resounded with the guns of the People’s Army, the sound of its caterpillars, the battle cries of the charging infantry units, as they attacked and smashed the enemy positions, destined to be reduced to a shambles.

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2. Mopping Up the Aggressors Southwards and Still Southwards !

COMRADE SUPREME COMMANDER gave the operational tasks to liberate Seoul to the units of the People’s Army moving like the wind, knocking out the enemy. It read: “Tsolate the enemy along the 38th Parallel by detouring to Seoul from northwest and north, southeast and south from the

enemy backing up Hoingsung, Wonjoo, Richun and the southwest and south of Soowon; surround and annihilate

the main

force of the enemy in the area of Seoul and liberate Seoul and other cities north of the Han River.” In accordance with this order, units of the People’s Army sped up their attack. The combined tank units of the People’s Army operating in the direction of the main attack broke through Euijungboo, crushed the defence force of the enemy, and pressed on to Seoul in the face of the fierce bombardment and strafing of the U.S. air force. The U.S. imperialists and their Syngman Rhee henchmen who thought they could swallow the Republic in one gulp were thrown right-off-balance by the development which cut right across their plans. Nonplussed, the enemy desperately strove to defend Seoul with their lives, under cover of the U.S. air force, while deploying six divisions of their remnant puppet troops on the Moonsan line and the most dangerous spot northeast of Seoul. 284

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Quickly grasping the situation, Comrade Supreme Commander issued an order to attack with speed so as not to allow the enemy time, and to attack both from the front and the flank. He called the Minister of National Defence, his close comrade-in-arms, and explained the operational plan to liberate Seoul, and sent him to the front to implement it successfully. During the anti-Japanese armed struggle, he had made a practice of sending all the commanding officers direct to the most difficult struggles to lead the battles, and had set the same example himself in person. By this means all the guerrilla fighters had gained confidence in victory and morale, and heightened their fighting spirit.

He himself was the very embodiment of this spirit. Following the order of their Comrade Supreme Commander, the front units opened a general offensive on Seoul. The attack was as a rising flood of angry waves, pouring through the gorges like a torrent, with the extreme satisfaction of overwhelming the enemy and wiping them out, tied up in one place. By this time there was no enemy unit capable of withstanding the attack of the People’s Army, much less maintain discipline and fighting strength. The units became panic-stricken runaway troops. Even the highest levels of the enemy could do nothing but entrench themselves in Seoul in panic and despair. In an attempt to stifle the uproar in Seoul from the attack of the People’s Army, the puppet government announced over Radio Seoul that the puppet army had won a victory at the front, and with much to-do, suggested removing the “government” from Seoul to Taejon that night. John J. Muccio, the American Ambassador to Seoul, who had received instruc-

tions from the U.S. State Department to leave Seoul hurriedly on the morning of June 27, was the first to scurry to Soowon Airfield and hang on to the entrance step of a plane for Japan, 285

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but this was just the start of turmoil. The wounded of the puppet army began to storm Seoul, which was converted into a cauldron of disorder. Planes of the People’s Army dropped leaflets calling upon the enemy to surrender, flying over Seoul with the net encircling Seoul tightening; the Minister of National Defence sent by Comrade Supreme Commander to the front, called on the enemy by radio to capitulate. Because of this, the swirling chaos of the enemy reached a climax on the night of June 27, shown in the blowing up of the Hangang Bridge aimed at obstructing the crossing of the Han River by the People’s Army. Most of the puppet troops were still roaming about north of the Han River, and the puppet troops defending Seoul and the citizens hustled south by force of arms or deceived by the false propaganda of the enemy, causing a great jam at the gang Bridge. Just at that time, the U.S. imperialists and pet army brasshats and grand panjandrums who had lost wits, blew up the bridge. Crowds of puppet troops and ians fell into the waters of the Han River on the jet-black and fell on top of one another.

Hanpuptheir civilnight

The combined infantry unit of the People’s Army and its combined tank units pressing the attacks towards Seoul from the east, switched over to a frontal charge on the morning of June

28, and rushed into the Dongdaimoon District of Seoul and cut off the enemy’s south retreat. The unit from the north closed in on Seoul in cooperation with the others, exterminated the enemy in the area of Mia-ri, and dashed on into Seoul. Fierce street-to-street fighting went on in various districts of Seoul City. The tanks of the People’s Army which had taken the lead in dashing into Seoul raised the national flag of the Republic with its shining star and blue and crimson colours on the roof of the “Capitol” of the puppet government, the hotbed of untold crimes. So the Korean People’s Army smashed the enemy’s 286

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invasion plans and completely liberated Seoul at 11:30 a.m. on June 28, three days after turning back the attack.

This was a

categorical reply by Comrade Kim I] Sung and the Korean people to the arrogant challenge of the enemy! The shameful behaviour of the enemy, running for their lives, deprived of even the “capital” three days after igniting the aggressive war, an enemy full of hot air and falling apart, became the laughingstock of the whole world.

The people of Seoul, on whom colonial slavery had been imposed under the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism for about 40 years, and then under the reactionary domination of

U.S. imperialism and the traitorous Syngman Rhee gang over several years, were embraced to the bosom of Comrade Kim II Sung, the warm-hearted Leader. Holding up signs reading “Long live General Kim II] Sung, our respected and beloved Leader!’ with his portrait, and shouting “manse” (hurrah) at the top of their voices, the emancipated people marched through the streets of Seoul. The joy and cheers of the people were a clear expression of boundless gratitude and loyalty to Comrade Kim II] Sung, the respected and beloved Leader of the Korean people, who had liberated them from the abyss of hunger and humiliation. On

the

occasion

of the

liberation

of

Seoul,

Comrade

Kim I] Sung, Supreme Commander, extended warmest congratulations on June 28 to the compatriots throughout the country, the People’s Army and the citizens of Seoul. In addition, he presented before the entire people the tasks necessary to end the war quickly, and aid the advancing People’s Army in every way with the purpose of completing their national unification. The liberation of Seoul thoroughly crushed the evil desigr. of the U.S. imperialists and the Syngman Rhee bandits, who aimed to conquer the northern half of the Republic at a single swoop. It brought the ruling system of Syngman Rhee to the 287

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brink of disintegration. Regarding the debacle, the enemy wrote: “Demoralized troops were on the defence on June 28, ready to escape to the south of the Han River. The headquarters of the ground force could only muster 22,000 men, though 98,000 men were on the roll on the 25th.

‘The National Army

of the ROK, reported to be next in strength to the United States’ was not only defeated. It had disintegrated.’”’ Reinforcing their air fleet and navy and brutally bombing both the front and the rear, the U.S. imperialists, flustered by the thrust of the People’s Army, on July 2 landed the U.S. 24th Division from Japan at Pusan, and poured out their ground troops on a large scale. With this full-dress advance of the U.S. army in mind, the military of the U.S. imperialists and the press believed that the situation at the front would take a quick turn for the better. They arbitrarily drew the hasty conclusion that however brave and stubborn the People’s Army might be, it would be helpless against the ever-victorious U.S. troops, and that at a glance at the U.S. army, the People’s Army would tremble and take to their heels.

But what were the facts? To say nothing of their fright, the brave warriors of the People’s Army were aroused to boundless resentment and hatred for the U.S. imperialists. Firmly prepared to wipe out their sworn enemy mercilessly, they struck a mortal blow at the aggressors from their initial battle with the U.S. ground troops.

The spearhead unit of the People’s Army which had met the advance detachment of the U.S. 24th Division on July 5 at a line north of Osan, made an attack on the enemy without waiting for the arrival of the main force. As the tanks smashed into the enemy’s position and artillery fire, the infantry struck at the enemy with lightning speed, pressing hard from

the front and the flank. One man accounted for 17 of the enemy 288

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with his bayonet and over 40 with hand grenades. Everybody fought in this manner. In consequence, the spearhead unit of the People’s Army thoroughly cleaned up an infantry battalion and an artillery battalion of the U.S. army within less than two hours. | This brilliant victory scored by the People’s Army in the first encounter with the U.S. ground troops demonstrated clearly the might of the People’s Army fighting for the Leader and the Party, and for the fatherland and the people. It also proved clearly that however desperate the efforts of the U.S. imperialist aggressors, confident of their techniques, natural resources and numerical strength, they were doomed to defeat. Meanwhile, the fledgling air force of the People’s Army shot down many enemy planes in air duels and the 2nd Torpedo Boat Unit of the Navy sank a heavy cruiser of the U.S. imperialist navy and damaged a light cruiser, with only four torpedo boats in the region of Joomoonjin. This was a feat unparalleled in the history of naval battles. Thunderstruck, Killer-General MacArthur, bitterly confess-

ing that ‘““The enemy is an aggressive, well-trained professional army; the brains of the army are able to hold excellent command of it and are skilfully making use of strategy and tactics,” clamoured that he immediately needed another five divisions with complete fighting power and three tank battalions at least. According to his long-standing habit of styling himself the victor, resorting to the mass extermination of peaceful inhabitants (for instance, massacring a quarter of the population of Luzon, as he did) in the war of aggression, he ordered the U.S. air force to carry out brutally heavy bombing, unparalleled in the history of war, against the front, and against the peaceful industrial installations and residential quarters of the northern half, in particular. So at the very beginning of the war, Pyongyang, Hamheung, Heungnam and most of the northern cities 289

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and villages were reduced to ashes. In view of this some people abroad shouted that the war potential of North Korea would fade at a rapid pace and that the United States troops would be able easily to shift to a full-scale counteroffensive at the front. Timed to this, the U.S. imperialists whipped up their satellite countries on July 7 in the U.N. Security Council to whip through an illegal decision to form “U.N. Forces” and let them join in the Korean front, place them under U.S. command and have the United States name the commander-in-chief of the “U.N. Forces.” This extremely grave move stirred up wholesale condemnation and a storm of indignation among the Korean people and the peace-loving peoples of the world. But the frenzied U‘S. imperialists drove more divisions into the Korean front in the name of the “U.N. Forces.’”’ MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of the “U.N. Forces,” set up his “U.N. Command” in Tokyo, and Walton H. Walker, Commander of the Eighth U.S. Army, set up the Eighth Army Headquarters in Taejon. The Korean War became one of extreme severity and protraction. But Comrade Kim I] Sung did not change his conviction that the Korean people would surely win, steeled even more by this war. This confidence was clearly seen in his answer to a question submitted by a correspondent of “L’Humanite” concerning the Korean War. On the prospects of the Korean War, he answered with firm confidence: “If there had been no foreign intervention, the war in Korea would have been ended long ago. It goes without saying that the American aggression is prolonging the war. We do not expect that victory will be won easily. However, the Korean people are firmly determined to ~ fight until they completely drive the American armed aggressors 290

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from Korea and win final victory.” To the question on whether the losses caused by the bestial bombing by the U.S. imperialists would affect the outcome of the war, he replied: “The beastly atrocities of the American imperialists are further fanning the flame of hatred of the Korean people against these aggressors. These atrocities cannot weaken the Korean people, but on the contrary will strengthen the struggle for freedom and independence.” In an effort to decisively crush U.S. imperialism, the most bestial and arrogant imperialism of the world, in a radio address delivered on July 8, 1950, Comrade Kim I] Sung appealed to the entire people and the People’s Army to come out in the allpeople national liberation struggle for the annihilation of U.S. imperialism. Bringing to light the shameless and heinous aggressive acts

and brutish atrocities of the U.S. imperialists, overshadowing the Hitlerites, and imbuing the hearts of the people with the spirit of ardent patriotism based on lofty national pride and an uncompromising fighting spirit against the aggressors, he said: “We will never forgive the crimes committed by the U.S. imperialists on the territory of our country, we will never pardon them for barbarously bombing our peaceful towns and villages and slaughtering our parents, brothers and sisters and innocent children. The brutish U.S. imperialist aggressors who have soaked our land with the blood of our people, will be cursed not only by us but also by our posterity for generations to come. All Koreans who hold dear the honour of the country and destiny of the nation, whoever they may be, should come out as

one man in the sacred battle for the liberation of the country against the aggression of the U.S. imperialists.” Moreover, while putting stress on the unshakable Juche position that “winning freedom and independence for the counOu

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try depends on the Korean people themselves,” and on the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance, he gave the entire people and the army militant tasks to fulfil. He called upon the people in the northern half of the Republic and in the liberated areas to increase production to the maximum and build the rear into an impregnable fortress, and called on the men and women guerrillas and the people in areas not yet liberated to attack and mop up the U.S. imperialist marauders and their flunkeys in the enemy’s rear mercilessly, so as to guarantee victory in the war and aid the People’s Army. With unbounded love and expectations in his mind, he submitted to them the militant tasks of the People’s Army: “Heroic men, noncommissioned officers and officers of the People’s Army! The entire Korean people are following with profound affection and pride your exploits in the fight for the country and the people. Let us shatter the vicious aggressors more mercilessly and determinedly! Let us clear our land of the U.S. imperialist marauders and their lackeys! Officers of the People’s Army! Skilfully apply the art of command in modern warfare! Conduct mobile operations of your units boldly, and surround and wipe out the enemy! Let us turn the excellent techniques of our army to full account!” In closing his speech, he appealed as follows: “Let us march forward to drive the U.S. imperialists com-

pletely from this land where from generation to generation our

ancestors lie buried and where our beloved younger generation is growing up! Let us carry on the righteous liberation struggle to a victorious conclusion, so that the glorious flag of the Demo-. cratic People’s Republic of Korea will wave over Pusan, Mokpo and Mt. Halla on Chejoo Island! 292

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Forward to victory! Long live the freedom and independence of Korea!” This address of Comrade Kim I] Sung’s excited the great and burning hatred of all the people and the People’s Army against the U.S. imperialist aggressors, and kindled their firm resolve to drive out the U.S. imperialists completely, rallied firmly around the Leader, following the road indicated by him. The call of Comrade Kim II Sung’s was a supreme national order, which moved the entire people and the army to rush into large-scale mopping-up operations against the U.S. imperialists, an angry answer which clearly warned the U.S. imperialist aggressors of the reverses they would suffer. Upholding the order of Comrade Supreme Commander, the People’s Army smashed the enemy with even more mobility and speeded up the attack. They freed Chunan on July 8 and in the wake of this liberated Jochiwon, Danyang, Eumsung, Chungjoo, Kongjoo, Moongyung, Wooljin and other wide areas of the country.

With the passage of time, many difficult problems lay one upon another before him. There were questions such as the need to continuously open the advance of the People’s Army under the condition of the increased military strength of the U.S. army, the question of qualitatively strengthening the ranks as the ranks of the People’s Army grew with the rush of youth and students into the sacred struggle, the question of improving the transportation of war materials as liberated areas expanded and the front lengthened, the question of rapidly consolidating the defences of the eastern and western coasts and the work of democratizing the liberated areas of the southern half of the country. He visited wretched villages, falling down and burning under the enemy’s bombs and fire bombs, comforting the peasants and encouraging them to join the struggle to rout the enemy; called 298

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at the smoking front at night when enemy aircraft showered bullets like hail, with star shells. It appeared that he took no care of his own personal safety, so there was no inducement for adjutants to take things easy. How was the morale and fighting capacity of the combatants? Did they receive strategic goods regularly? How was the medical treatment of the wounded? Was the unit management of commanders in good shape? He took care of all these things in leading the war. He formed a Front Command to increase activity and mobility of battle command at the front. He appointed anti-Japanese guerrillas including Comrades Kim Chaik and Kang Kun to this command, and he instituted a military committee system in an attempt to strengthen political work among the troops. At the same time he took measures to consolidate the rear more firmly, in order for the needs of the front to be met more quickly. He had the rear base of the Front Command removed to Seoul to ensure better support for the expanding front, extending southwards. Seoul became a logistic base for the supply of war materials and a rear base hospital for the treatment of the wounded. This was made more appropriate by the tact that the South Korean people who had come out in support of victory could be mobilized to support the rear of the People’s Army.

Cadres organized large army reserves with great numbers of youth of both sexes who volunteered from the liberated areas of South Korea, as well as in North

Korea,

and the ranks of

cadres were replenished quickly in keeping. He adopted emergency measures to set up an all-people defence system for the rear. Foreseeing that the stampede of the U.S. imperialist aggressors would surely lead them to attempt to land their forces in oF,

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the rear of the People’s Army, making use of the large air and naval forces available to them, the Supreme Commander held that it was necessary that the rear and important seaside districts in particular should be strengthened to meet this threat. He therefore ordered the entire people to build an all-people defence

system with the units of the People’s Army as its core along the coastline and elsewhere.

In particular, he instructed the District

Military Committee in Charge of the Defence of Kyunggi Province to prepare a stronger defence system in the Inchun-Seoul area where an attack by the enemy could be expected. Pointing out that extraordinary efforts would be needed to

carry out all these vast and difficult tasks, Comrade Kim II Sung stressed that the Korean people had solved their problems without fail, depending on their own inner strength, not depending with folded arms, on others.

At the same time Comrade Kim II Sung directed the institution of democratic reforms under way in the liberated areas. The democratic reforms carried out in the liberated areas were in fulfilment of the revolutionary plan of the great Leader, to relieve the people of their poverty and denial of rights suffer-

ed under the enemy rule, make them their own masters of power and all the wealth, as were the people in the northern half, and mobilize and organize their enthusiasm for the struggle for victory.

It was no easy task. The enemy demolished everything in the path and killed and injured many people, while retreating. Pawns of the enemy, who had entrenched themselves in the communist ranks, destroyed the Workers’ Party of South Korea and did great damage even to the people. On top of this, the fires of war were flaring up in many places. In order to meet this situation, he detailed many able cadres from the northern half to help the people of the South. Asa result, organizations of the Workers’ Party and social bodies 295

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were formed everywhere, and following the restoration of people’s committees, elections of local people’s committees at all levels were held, to the cheers of the people. On this basis, historic land reforms were carried out under which the land belonging to the enemy and landlords was confiscated without compensation, and given without charge to the landless farm labourers and peasants. For the South Korean peasants to become masters of their own land for the first time in history was a source of boundless joy to them. In addition a Labour Law was enacted and many revolutionary measures to establish a democratic society were brought in. The people of South Korea were filled with infinite trust in and adoration for Comrade Kim I] Sung, who had freed them and opened up to them a society good to live in. Taking time from his busy work, he went among the people in the liberated areas to look after problems affecting their lives. The following incident took place: In quiet military uniform he entered the yard of a farmhouse. A woman of the farmhouse who worked in the kitchen politely returned his salute without knowing who he was. And then, gazing at his face she said, as to herself. “I seem to have met him somewhere....” But when could this woman of this farmhouse, so recently liberated from the dark society of the enemy, have met Comrade

Kim I] Sung? The woman looked at his face time and again and thought. It seemed she was looking for some clue in her memory. Then she opened the door and looked up at a big picture on the wall. It was a portrait of Comrade Kim II Sung.

The eyes of the woman turned back to him. She was so astonished and overwhelmed that she was at a loss what to do, her eyes filled with tears. “Premier! I cannot yet...Premier, thank you!” 296

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The woman could utter scarcely a word to the Premier who

had done so much for their livelihood, and she smiled and wept like a child overwhelmed with a sudden great gift and happiness. This fragment of a story tells the ardent love of the South Korean people, to whom had come a new life, for Comrade Kim I] Sung, the respected and beloved Leader. The democratic reforms, indeed, gave great impetus to the education of the South Korean people on the superiority of the people’s democratic system, and helped to unite them around the Leader and the Party. It was also of great importance in destroying the politico-economic foundations of the U.S. imperialists and the Syngman Rhee gang, isolating them and mobilizing the revolutionary enthusiasm of the South Korean people for victory.

To live up to the favour that was done for them by the Leader and the Workers’ Party that had liberated them and made them masters of their own new society, the South Korean people devoted themselves to victory in the war. Taking active part in the democratic reforms, the people in the liberated areas worked hard to rebuild the demolished economy. In the coal mines, such as at Hwasoon, Nyungwol and other areas, coalpits destroyed by the routed enemy were speedily repaired and brought back into production; in the completely devastated industrial centres such as the Kyungin area, Kwangjoo and Choonchun, vigorous reconstruction work quickly got under way. The people in various liberated areas built up their own defences, organizing armed self-defence corps to protect their villages and towns against the enemy, and made a great contribution to the firm cementing of the rear by their counter-spy activities. Broken bridges were repaired in the teeth of the enemy’s heavy bombing; ammunition, provisions and other war materials carried to the front, defying the guns, and the 297

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medical care of wounded soldiers of the People’s Army went on unceasingly. Hundreds of thousands of youth of both sexes, including students, vied with each other in the volunteers’ ranks to beat

back the Yankee imperialist marauders. Even while the American imperialists were engaged in their indiscriminate bombing and mass murder, Comrade Kim II Sung set the people free and gave them a new life, organized and educated the army and the people in a wholly revolutionary manner and created the immense power in this course. He built up the strength of the army and the rear in a threedimensional programme, worked out a large-scale offensive operation against U.S. imperialism, effecting a general mobilization of all the energies of the people. He turned his eyes to Taejon. “I will drive the Yankee scoundrels into this city, Taejon and demonstrate the morale of the Korean people.” This was how he made up his mind. Taejon was an important city of South Korea and a strategic military base linking the Ryungnam (North and South Kyungsang Provinces) and Honam (North and South Cholla Provinces) areas. Fleeing from Seoul, the enemy proclaimed this city the “‘temporary capital’ and concentrated the bulk of their effective strength here. Among other things, the U.S. imperialist aggressors assembled here their so-called “Invincible Division,” the 24th Division, the biggest in U.S. history with all its firepower. In order to defend the place with desperation, the enemy formed strong supporting points on every line, turning the Keum River and the Sobaik Ranges to good account and announced that this was the “line of no retreat,’ or the “last defence line.” Without breaking this line, the People’s Army could not march south of Taejon. Only by smashing through this line, could the Korean people explode the laughable “myth” of U.S. 298

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imperialist might, which claimed that the drive of the People’s Army would be stopped by the U.S. troops, and sweep away their illusion of “invincibility.” In truth, on the result of the Battle for the Liberation of Taejon hung the question of whether or not the Korean people could put the U.S. imperialists’ nose out of joint,aresult that would greatly affect subsequent operations. So the combined units of the People’s Army had to liberate Taejon at once and at any cost. Analysing the military situation, the balance of forces between the enemy and the Korean people, and the prospective development of the war, Comrade Kim I] Sung mapped out a careful and meticulous operation to free Taejon, and led it in person. He planned a large-scale encirclement for their annihilation, a fierce frontal attack on the enemy and from the flank, with skilfully coordinated operations with troops of all arms, and with some units moving around the south of Taejon, penetrating deep into the enemy’s rear, blocking the enemy’s retreat and cutting off the route for new reinforcements. The plan was to lure the main force of the U.S. imperialist aggressors and the large troops of the puppet army stampeding southwards into a trap and, mow them down to the last man. The aim was to inflict a grave military and political defeat upon the panicking, fleeing enemy and plunge them into complete chaos. These outstanding tactics he developed in terms of modern warfare in guerrilla activities, moving with preternatural swiftness during the period of the arduous anti-Japanese armed struggle. His superb strategy and tactics involved making surprise attacks and wiping out large forces of the enemy, using mobile large-scale encircling operations. Under

the orders of Comrade

Supreme

Commander,

the

combined units of the People’s Army, which had already moved OE)

KIM IL SUNG

to the Ronsan line, began the detour to the south of Taejon on July 18. Moving around the enemy’s rear and flank, the combatants made a stealthy forced march, threading even through the enemy’s tight lines. Elated with the honour of carrying out this combat task under the direct orders of Comrade Kim II Sung, the brilliant commander of the anti-Japanese guerrillas and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, they took up positions south and southeast of Taejon, in the face of massive obstacles. In coordination, a combined unit which had gallantly crossed the Keum River surrounded the 19th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 24th Division near Taipyungri north of Taejon, cleaning it up, chopping it up piece by piece like tentacles

of an

octopus,

and advanced

to the northwest

of Taejon. The unit which had attacked in the direction of Jochiwon and Chungjoo, marched to the north of Taejon. The combined units of the Korean People’s Army completed the encirclement on the afternoon of July 19, and launched a general offensive against the enemy in Taejon at dawn on the 20th of July. The morale of the People’s Army was high as they dashed into the streets, following the strong tank unit amid the roar of guns of every type, and seemed capable of “moving mountains.”

Was this their “line of no retreat?” Did the creators of the “Invincible Division” sleep with the guns shaking heaven and earth? No. The enemy put up a desperate resistance, but in vain. The “crack” units of the U.S. imperialists certainly cracked before the Korean People’s Army, like a dog before a tiger. It is of more than passing interest to look at a document of the enemy describing the Taejon battle. “They (the People’s Army—author) depended upon the tactics of attacking the defence army in the front, binding its freedom and making it impossible to retreat, and at the same time advancing to the rear of the defence army by a detour and penetrating and cutting off 800

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the retreat. It was not possible, at any specific time, for Dean or other commanders to know the situation at the rear. It was...a tactic that U.S. commanders could not grasp until it was too late.... The U.S. army was stampeded and had to save what they could.... On the morning of July 20, Dean had the illusion that if they

could hold out two more days, reinforcements would arrive. This illusion was quickly dissipated. The demoralized defence troops began to retreat into the city and the front line of the enemy who had encircled the city, was being tightened more and more.’”” Wild confusion prevailed among the enemy in Taejon CityIt was no longer an army but a pack of thieves hell-bent on finding a way to escape. Even William F. Dean, Commander of the U.S. 24th Division, dashed about from one alley to another in.a bid to find an escape hole, appropriate for the last days of an aggressor. Out of his wits, he desperately fired his gun at a tank of the People’s Army moving in grand style. The tank moved on without damage, but Dean fired his pistol again and again to the last bullet. It was a picture of Dean in the shape of a hopeless man, such as a novelist could scarcely imagine. But the following case of Dean was even more pathetic. While trying to make his escape in a puppet army soldier’s uniform, he was caught by a soldier of the People’s Army. Dean’s case posed too many symbolic problems for all the daydreamers of U.S. imperialism. The enemy forces in Taejon, including the U.S. 24th Division were cut to pieces and the city liberated. The sweeping victory of the People’s Army in the Taejon battle demonstrated the outstanding strategy and tactics of Comrade Kim I] Sung and the might of the People’s Army to the whole world, and proved that the People’s Army was able to crush any U.S. imperialist aggressor army with 301

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credit and achieve final victory. The “myth” about the might of the United States fell apart. The so-called “history of victory” the U.S. imperialists bragged about came to an end, and they proved to be on the slippery path to doom. This crushing defeat of the U.S. 24th Division, the vaunted “top crack’ unit, along with other victories, brought the U.S. imperialists to a bed of thorns. Through their overwhelming defeat in this battle, the Yankee imperialist aggressors felt keenly that in spite of their boasted military and technical supremacy, their strategy and tactics were incapable of matching the distinguished strategy and tactics of Comrade Kim Il Sung and the political and ideological superiority of the People’s Army. Having been severely worsted, the U.S. imperialist invaders retreated in great disorder to Pusan, their last support base. The brave warriors of the People’s Army on every front, inflicting crushing blows on the fleeing enemy, advanced southwards at headlong speed. In the wake of the liberation of Taejon, they freed Mokpo on July 22, Kwangjoo on the 23rd, and straight on to Namwon, Koorye,

Soonchun,

Ryusoo,

Hadong,

Jinjoo, Hamchang

and

Andong and then liberated Kimchun, a strategic base of the enemy for the defence of Taegu and its neighbourhood, on August 2. In this manner, the People’s Army with unparalleled prowess liberated over 90 per cent of the whole territory and 92 per cent of the population of the southern half during only one and a half months after the outbreak of the war. Broken into bits and worn beyond endurance, the enemy was driven into the delta of Pusan, the southeastern tip of Korea. Pusan was a shambles, with the enemy held in panic and despair. Driven almost to madness, face to face with their last days, they felt they would be thrown into the Korean Straits 3802

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like garbage. On the then situation of Pusan, the enemy wrote: “With repeated defeats, the atmosphere of Pusan was dank with horror and paralyzed, with the U.N. Forces in full retreat.’? “The combatants driven helter-skelter into a corner of the bridgehead (Pusan bridgehead) of the peninsula were tired to death and demoralized, and their hearts were burning with discontent.’ All the enemy could do was to make a last-ditch effort. Walker, Commander of the Eighth Army of the U.S. imperialists, called to MacArthur to reinforce the U.S. troops quickly, and MacArthur, on his part, jarred the nerves of Truman, groaning about the “danger confronting the ROK” and frantically demanded the dispatch of large forces. Wireless communications between Pusan, Tokyo and Wash-

ington were maintained day and night with cries for help. The enemy deployed in concentric lines, U.S. and British military strength at five divisions and one independent regiment, and the puppet army strength at eight divisions gathered at random along the line of the Rakdong River, thereby doing all in

their power to hold in check the advance of the People’s Army. Comrade Kim II Sung called upon all his men to give no respite to the enemy

extended

to their limit, and to strike a

deathblow on them and destroy them. He said: “The nearer this war comes

to its final stage, the heavier

will be the battles.... The annihilation of the U.S. interventionists and their lackeys, the Syngman Rhee clique, and the expulsion of the imperialist invaders from the soil of our country depend precisely upon your staunchness and fortitude, your military skill and your determination to carry out your duty to the fatherland. Within a short time we can drive the American aggressors out of the territory of our fatherland, and this we 308

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Map of First Stage of Fatherland Liberation War (June 25-September 15, 1950)

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304

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must do without fail.” Putting into operation the strategic policy of Comrade Supreme Commander, the units of the People’s Army overwhelmed one position of the enemy after another and stormed like the wind towards the line of the Rakdong River. The call “the Rakdong River—Pusan” touched and fired the hearts of all the men. On hearing this call, fallen soldiers stood up again, and breathing his last, one of them handed over his ammunition to his comrade-in-arms, repeating these words.

Alarmed at the might of the People’s Army, at night the invaders fled to the depths of their position, and in the daytime made attacks with tanks in the lead, under cover of firing aircraft flying in like so many seagulls. The enemy had vast quantities of technical materials and many divisions. Enemy planes bombed our forces and rained bullets and shells upon them all day long. The mountains burnt; pieces of rock flew and the waters of the rivers boiled. But the officers and men of the People’s Army, undying birds, following the operational line of surrounding and smashing the enemy from north and west, dealt an annihilating blow at the enemy in Wegwan, Mt. Palgong, Pohang and many areas. At times they broke into the depths of the enemy’s positions and beat them back in the teeth of a storm of fire, at times they lured them out and wiped them out. The Rakdong River ran red with blood. Everything spat fire. Space was filled with flying shells and bullets, and over their heads raged the enemy planes. But it was the highspirited People’s Army that won the battle, and it was the U.S. imperialist aggressors and their mercenaries that shuddered with fear and flinched from the battle. Not even the strong enemy nor raging storm or stress could destroy the boundless faith of the men of the People’s Army in their Leader and people. Their hearts burned with loyalty 3805

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to the Leader as they charged into battle in burning trenches or in closing in upon the enemy position, with bayonets in their hands. No enemy force could counterattack the army organized and steeled by Comrade Kim I] Sung, anti-Japanese brilliant

commander,

an army armed with the revolutionary ideas of

Mt. Baikdoo and now with modern

weapons,

an army

using

to the full the brilliant strategy and tactics of the Leader. This People’s Army, which the U.S. imperialists had so made light of, was, in point of fact, the most accomplished in modern warfare, following unique ideas and full of fighting spirit, clever tactics and ability to fight.

3806

3. Towards Annihilation Operation, Tiding Over Ordeal

THE FRONT was undergoing drastic changes. The U.S. imperialist aggressors driven into a cul-de-sac, from where they would sink to the bottom of the Korean Straits, were compressed into a narrow district south of the Rakdong River. Here they made an adventurous bid to bring their aggressive scheme to fruition, at whatever price they might have to pay. Trying a counteroffensive along the line of the Rakdong River with beefed-up strength, the U.S. imperialists planned to carry out a landing operation in Inchun, calling in their land, sea and air forces in the Pacific, part of their Mediterranean Fleet and troops of their satellite countries such as England, France, the Philippines and Turkey. By this operation, the enemy aimed at spreading a strong front in the area of Inchun,

Seoul and Wonjoo to cut the front

of the People’s Army from the rear and “encircling and smashing’ the main forces of the People’s Army at the front in cooperation with the force opening a counterattack along the line of the Rakdong River, thus occupying the whole of Korea. Seeing through this scheme of the enemy’s at once, Comrade Kim I] Sung took a series of measures. He ordered the combined units of the People’s Army at the front of the Rakdong River to occupy a line favourable for them to meet the enemy’s 307

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counteroffensive and to organize a stubborn defence, guaranteeing each other’s flanks. At the same time, he paid deep attention to the defence of Inchun and Seoul. Early in July, at the beginning of the war, he had instructed the District Military Committee in Charge of the Defence of Kyunggi Province to consolidate the defence of the west coast and the Inchun-Seoul area, in particular. At that time, he gave it the task of dividing the Kyunggi Province district into seven defence districts and strengthening the military power substantially everywhere. He particularly set the task of placing there a combined unit, newly being formed in the neighbourhood of Inchun, marking three defence lines on a map for it to understand. But as brought to light later, the Li Seung Yup spy gang who had wormed themselves into the leading posts of the District Military Committee in Charge of the Defence of Kyunggi Province did not deliberately carry out the order. This was a vicious counterrevolutionary crime of espionage agents. Despite this, a large armed force of the enemy was heading for there, Inchun.

Comrade Kim I] Sung had to take a new emergency measure. In order to strengthen the defence against a landing on the west coast as soon as possible, he organized the West Coast Defence Headquarters and quickly mobilized the troop strength in the Inchun-Seoul area. Just at that time, from September 13, the enemy suddenly moved into the region of Inchun, with over 300 ships and a large force of over 50,000, including the U.S. lst Marine Division, the U.S. 7th Division and the Special Engineering Brigade, all under the command of U.S. Imperialist X Corps, plus the puppet army and the troops of the satellite countries with air cover of more than 1,000 aircraft.

The People’s Army 308

was thus compelled to fight a difficult

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battle with an incomparably superior enemy both on the line of the Rakdong River and the Inchun-Seoul area. Wolmi Island, the gateway to Inchun, was burning with the rain of enemy bombs and shells pumped on to it. Flights of enemy planes made more than 100 sorties. The enemy attacked, showering upon this small island more than four bombs and shells per square metre. But an heroic company of the coast battery and a company of the defence infantry on Wolmi Island did not move back even when the whole of the island was engulfed, turned into a sea of flames. There was no place to retreat into, nor could they move backwards. They knew that the people in the vast liberated areas and the front of the Rakdong River who were fighting sanguinary battles, were looking at them with burning eyes. They held a Party meeting and a soldiers’ meeting and determined to fight like the anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters who had won battles against incomparably superior enemy force under the leadership of Comrade Kim I] Sung. They solemnly pledged the Leader and the Party they would not draw back even a step even if their bones were broken and they had to lay down their lives, so that the enemy might be kept from setting foot on Wolmi Island, the sacred soil of the fatherland. The situation was grave. Enemy bullets rained on them and the whole island was torn apart and burning, but they fought on against the enemy warships like bolts of lightning. They kept on firing until their guns ran hot and bent from the heat and their last gun was broken by enemy fire.

With their guns broken and ammunition used up, they launched a hand-to-hand struggle, shouting “Long live the Leader!” exchanging every drop of their blood for large quantities of enemy blood, and died there an heroic death. The defenders on Wolmi Island sank and damaged more 309

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than 10 warships and other vessels of the enemy in this battle, and for three days held the enemy, with troops hundred or thousands of times greater in numbers than themselves, at a mere company strength! These three days in which they devoted themselves to the fatherland and the revolution, were a most precious thing, that could be exchanged for nothing. Outstanding heroes all, they demonstrated with their bloody exploits the iron will and inexhaustible strength of the People’s Army which had inherited the revolutionary traditions of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, and lived and fought according to the ideas of their Leader. The U.S. imperialist aggressors who had landed at Inchun rushed to Seoul, suffering exhausting blows at every step. MacArthur incited the brutality of the troops, barbarously stirring them up to ravage women and plunder the property of Seoul. All-people offensive and defensive battles were fought in the Seoul district. The People’s Army did not yield one road or one alley without fighting. The Seoul citizens who had won freedom and happiness through Comrade Kim II Sung and the

Workers’ Party of Korea, self-sacrificingly fought the enemy with arms in hand, headed by the workers, together with the People’s Army. They barricaded the streets, resounding with the boom of guns and carried ammunition and combat materials. Women carried foodstuff to the fighters, running through the smoke of battles in defiance of death, and jumped into trenches to look after the wounded soldiers. Troops fighting in the defence of the Inchun-Seoul area, and the Seoul people killed, injured or captured over 12,000 enemy officers and men in life-and-death battles with the enemy, and held the enemy in check for 14 days. This was a telling blow on the enemy, trying to occupy Seoul with “blitz” tactics, then to advance in the direction of Wonjoo and Taejon and “encircle and smash” the units of the 310

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People’s Army on the front of the Rakdong River, in cooperation with the attacking force of the main front. At this time, the combined units of the People’s Army fronting the Rakdong River waged bitter defensive battles under very difficult conditions, checking the enemy’s desperate attacks. Judging the combat situation, Comrade Kim II Sung, Supreme Commander, made up his mind to lure and scatter the enemy, throwing them into the confusion of a labyrinth, not

hitting them in front as before, with the enemy making assaults at full military strength and equipment which was overwhelmingly superior to the People’s Army, and quickly to prepare further for a new annihilating aggressive war. This was aimed at taking the offensive, an outstanding strategy to quickly put the enemy on the complete defensive, and while preserving his forces to the maximum, to evade the enemy’s pincers operation, counter-encircle and crush the enemy trying to encircle our army. This strategic policy illustrates the deep outstanding wisdom and fighting will of Comrade Kim Il Sung, who planned to crush the enemy, superior in numerical strength with original strategy and tactics, under circumstances, difficult and dangerous, and drive the highest levels of the arrogant enemy to despair, as he often did in the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle. He put it forth as the important task, to move the main units of the People’s Army from the southern half in a planned withdrawal, delaying the attack of the enemy and so buying time, and at the same time preparing a reserve army. The temporary strategic retreat was a sore trial for the people and the People’s Army. But the people were convinced, through the revolution and their own experience, that the Leader who had always led them

to victory would put forward a new policy. 311

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In his October 11 radio address, Comrade Kim I] Sung made clear to the entire people and the People’s Army his concrete step for strategic retreat. Putting stress on his confidence that the Korean people would win the final victory, even though the situation created in the fatherland was grave, he said: “Imperialism, which is doomed to perish, is desperately trying to turn the wheel of history backwards. The imperialists tried this in Russia and failed. They tried the same thing in China but achieved nothing. Now they are trying to enslave the Korean people. However, the reactionary aggressive plan of the robber American imperialists is doomed once again to fail. The national liberation struggle which the Korean people are waging for the liberty and independence of their fatherland against the attempt of American imperialism to enslave them, does not arise from a transient

or

temporary

cause, but

from

the fundamental realization that the Korean people cannot afford to become slaves again to foreign imperialists after experiencing the long enslavement under Japanese imperialism, and they well know that the freedom and independence of their country, their own happiness and prosperity, as well as those of future generations, can be attained only by way of a national liberation struggle. For this reason the Korean people will win victory.” He submitted militant tasks for the People’s Army to heighten its fighting power, the people in the rear to protect and remove industrial and transportation facilities and materials, and for the people in enemy-ruled districts to unfold vigorous guerrilla struggles. This speech was a militant programme of the Party to bring about a final victory, defying and overcoming the impending crisis. BIZ

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The people and soldiers confirmed their conviction that they would surely win by the teachings of the Leader, and devoted themselves to the fighting. The defence units in the areas of the 38th Parallel, Wonsan and Yangduk death-defyingly countered the on-rushing enemy troops and smashed them, and allowed time and provided routes necessary for the retreat of the main units of the People’s Army and the people in the rear. The main units of the People’s Army which had advanced to the line of the Rakdong River boldly wiped out detachments of the enemy by surprise attacks, and retreated the long several hundred kilometres at an exhilarating speed, negotiating steep, pathless mountains and crossing deep rivers. For this success, critics in the bourgeois countries were overwhelmed with admiration, talking about “miracles” and the “art of land contraction.” It was the veteran revolutionary fighters, raised by Comrade Kim I] Sung in the snowstorms of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, who skilfully led the retreating main units. The fighters who had participated in the “Arduous March” from the end of 1938 to early 1939, unprecedented in the history of world guerrilla warfare from the viewpoint of arduousness, were filled with firm confidence and were in high spirits. They swiftly led the units, always scorning the enemy, and bound all their units into a united and dynamic collective, filled with optimism and warm strong love for all the ranks. In truth, the might of the revolutionary traditions of the great anti-Japanese armed struggle which gleamed brightest when the situation was most difficult, was beyond price. The U.S. imperialists could not bring Korea to their knees in any sense. Korea was neither the American continent where brutish “pioneers” were able to put natives to slave labour of death as they pleased, nor old Africa where they were able to 313

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buy Negroes as slaves with gimcrack glass jewels. Small as it was, Korea was the essence of courage, bomb and sword. It was Korea which made a counterattack when attacked, and which cut open the abdomen and jumped out when swallowed. Japanese imperialism had come to grief there and was soundly beaten. Now the U.S. imperialists were doomed to failure. But they were ready to crawl into a trap without realizing the trap was set. The enemy was not able to capture the main strength of the People’s Army but instead they received the baptism of fire of the defending People’s Army wherever they went. Not only this, but the people organized guerrilla units in every enemy-ruled area such as Kowon, Moonchun, Mt. Koowol and Koksan, and attacked the enemy in the rear. No matter what the difficulties and hardships, the people were faithful only to Comrade Kim I] Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea. They carried heavy machines and equipment on their backs or on their heads, moved to secure places more than 100 kilometres away and there they continued production. The peasants fought on, following the teaching of their Leader, not to hand even a grain of rice to the enemy. The warm hearts of the South Korean people, stirred with gratitude for the people’s democratic system given by the Leader in their short experience of two months, moved to the North where the Leader was. In response to the call of the Leader, workers and peasants determinedly joined in the guerrilla struggles, and youth and students vied with each other in the volunteer corps. Among the retreating crowds were members of the political work teams and men of the arts, operating amid gunfire of the first line, and many South Korean workers and peasants leaving their native places with their babies on their backs and with 314

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their families. Among them were also boys from Namhai Island who, with “The Song of General Kim I] Sung” had made the long trip of the burning thousand ri, over which enemy planes raged like so many crows, and white-haired scholars quickening their pace to go where the Leader was, making their own sandals at times of rest. The truth and revolutionary care extended by the Leader fostered such a strong passion. But a thrice-cursed scene took place in the enemy-occupied areas. The U.S. imperialists and their bootlickers trampled underfoot and burnt everything in all quarters. They butchered innocent people en masse. They kicked children and pregnant women into the flames and buried old folks alive. In Sinchun county, Hwanghai Province alone, they massacred a quarter of the population of the county. The cursed enemy could neither understand nor learn humanity or morality. Having lived like maggots in plunder and immorality, they had not even a modicum of humanity, and the people regarded them as beasts. Because of this the U.S. imperialists sustained a severe political and moral defeat, an ignominious defeat that like a heavy rock weighed them down to suffer a complete military

defeat. The people did not beg the scoundrels for mercy for their lives when killed by the enemy. They met their end fighting, denouncing the U.S. imperialists as barbarians with whom they could not live under the same sky. The people, with tools or weapons captured from the enemy in their hands, in defiance of death wreaked their vengeance upon the enemy and threw them into confusion and terror. The retreating People’s Army and the people were filled with blazing unbounded anger, the lightning of annihilating revenge flashing in their hearts. As they retreated, Comrade Kim I] Sung did not cease con315

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ducting vigorous activities day or night. Before him lay uncounted tasks, such as the organization of successive defensive battles to strike at the invading enemy; the dispatch of his intimate comrades-in-arms, giving them new tasks; formation of the strong second front designed to hit the enemy in the rear; care for the retreating army and people and organizational directions for them; organization of wartime prcduction in safe zones; preparations for a counterattack and plan for an annihilation operation against the enemy. But he flawlessly solved the many issues with extraordinary revolutionary power. He used every minute and every second like a_ priceless treasure. His adjutants did not know when he slept. Though so busy with his work, he was calm as before, with reserves enough and to spare, and even while directing the war as a whole, he extended his careful solicitude to the retreating people. Among the groups of retreating scholars was Dr. Li, an authority on vinalon, who took along with him his wife in the eighth month of pregnancy and his five little children. As the doctor and his family were preparing to start on the journey again after stopping overnight at Yunpyung, Sinpa county, Ryanggang Province, under the warm care of the Party, one of the scholars who had left in advance came back, bringing a cart with a farmer. He told the following warm-hearted story to the doctor, who at first did not know why: “TI was told that Comrade Supreme Commander, having seen the situation of retreating scholars, was moved to hear that you, doctor, had come with your pregnant wife and children. At the same time he was worried about it. It is said that the careful Leader has sent this cart, saying that it was safer for you to come along a mountain path, bringing your wife and children on the cart, than to come by car along a highway constantly .

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strafed by enemy planes.” Could any father take greater care of his son than this? The doctor and his wife, who had lived in poverty and humiliation in Seoul before the war, sobbed like children, touched

by

the Leader’s deep and warm love for them. Comrade Kim II Sung prepared for a counterattack, leading the retreat. He left Changsung for Kosanjin, Manpo county on a snowy night early in November. On his way he met a powerfully marching unit singing in a loud voice, echoing in the night sky, “The Song of General Kim II Sung.”

Stopping the car and getting down, he found the commander of the ranks and asked him where the unit came from. The commander replied, not knowing who he was, as it was a pitchdark night. He said that the unit had left Andong, North Kyungsang Province, mopped up the enemy in every part and marched two thousand 77. After praising the commander, taking him by the hands, he saw the unit members standing in the dark and asked a unit member looking particularly young, his name and age, patting him on the shoulder. The unit member in a clear and highpitched voice said he was So Seung Ryul. He was a battalion orderly, 17 years old and came here walking from Andong.

After questioning whether he was tired, where he came from and whether his parents were alive and well, the Supreme Commander asked again. “Then, where are you going?” “We are on the way to the Supreme Headquarters.” “What for?” So Seung Ryul answered strongly, holding himself up as if on wings.

“We go to receive a new combat task from Comrade Supreme Commander.” Having heard the categorical answer of the orderly, 317

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Comrade Kim II Sung looked over the snow-falling sky as if he was lost in an impressive thought. In a moment he asked strongly. “Can you win over the Yankees if you receive an order?” At that time all the men standing in the dark replied in one gun-roaring voice. “We can win! we can win surely!” At this moment new units of the People’s Army came marching along both sides of the road, singing “The Song of General Kim I] Sung” in a loud voice, as though to move the mountains. It was like a flow of molten iron and a sea of flames. He said in an excited tone, looking at the vigour of the soldiers. “..We must quickly make all the preparations for combat and wipe the enemy at one stroke off our fatherland; Now you

do not retreat. Already you are on the offensive! is a road leading to your hometown!...”

This march

Again turning to the aides, he said with confidence. “Look at them. The Korean youth are not dead! The Korean people will surely win! They will surely win!” This dialogue was exchanged between the Leader and soldiers just before a new battle at a time of severe trial. The aggressors rushed on. Stupid and ferocious MacArthur “was convinced” that the victory of the U.S. army was almost decided already. And he boastfully said to the soldiers, “You will be home for Christmas.”

But he did not know that, making the most of the outstanding strategic operational policy of the Leader and favourable natural and topographical conditions, the People’s Army would cut the U.S. imperialist aggressors into fragments and thrash them as with a relentless flail in the mountains of North Korea with its numberless deep and narrow gorges and edge-like ridges. Where the greatest victory was expected, lying in 318

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wait was his most crushing defeat. The start of a large-scale annihilation operation by the Korean People’s Army against the aggressors was only a matter of time. At this time, Comrade Kim II] Sung prepared the People’s Army to deploy a few units which had retreated to Chulwon from the line of the Rakdong River, in North Hwanghai Prov-

ince and South Pyungan Province, to launch a powerful attack on the rear of the enemy, and cut them off in retreat, lay siege

to them and launch an annihilation operation when the People’s Army was ready for the counterattack. On the other hand, as preparation for the shift to a new large-scale annihilation operation, he adopted a measure to regroup the units which had retreated from the front, making maximum use of time, and establish strong discipline. On top of this, he had the cadres organize new divisions and reserve units quickly, while arming the People’s Army with new combat materials. Moreover, he formed a political department in the army to strengthen further their fighting capacity. Accordingly the Korean People’s Army was reorganized into strong main corps and reserve corps within one month and a half after the retreat began. Now the officers and men of the People’s Army were fully prepared to make a roundup of the enemy who had worked themselves into the northern half, and rush even

to Seoul and Pusan, if the Leader so ordered.

On the whole course of the strategic retreat of the People’s Army, the author of “America has been defeated” wrote as follows: “The landing of the U.N. Forces on Inchun—by this the situation underwent a change and was reversed. But it was different from the stampeding state of the ROK Army. The voluntary dissolution and regrouping of the communist army were carried out in a very short space of time under a difficult 319

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given condition; though it was accompanied by a general strategic retreat, the readjustment of the front and the flexibility,

elasticity and mobility of the strategic retreat were, indeed, based only on the fighting consciousness peculiar to the communist army, and it only can do this skilfully. The communist army could escape the greatest crisis with the minimum sacrifice.” The war now entered a third stage. It was a new stage comprising five operations unparalleled in agility, waged under the direct command of Comrade Kim II Sung. Having overcome the stern trials of the days of the retreat, Comrade Kim I] Sung hammered out a farsighted plan to wreak vengeance upon the enemy a hundred and a thousand times, and make them bend their knees to the Korean people, and led the third stage of the war, requiring extraordinary strategic and tactical wisdom and maximum discipline. He put it forward as the strategic task otf the third stage ot the war, to weaken the strength of the enemy with continued battles of attrition, driving them south of the 38th Parallel and preparing strength for victory in war more firmly. To this end, he ordered the launching of a positive defensive battle in the eastern part of the front and the first campaign whose main mission was to surround and annihilate the enemy in the area north of the Chungchun River in the western part of the front,

from October 25.

As soon as the operation started, the units on the western

front struck a crushing blow at the enemy force, killed, injured or took prisoner more than 15,000 officers and men of the enemy and captured a large quantity of war materials, and drove the remnants of the defeated enemy army south of the Chungchun River. With the conception of making a stronger counterattack upon the enemy, he held a Meeting of Commanders and _Polit320

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ical Commissars of the Korean People’s Army in November. At the meeting, he summed up the course of the four months and submitted to them the following tasks clarifying a counteroffensive plan to bring about a great change in the front. To deal a telling blow on the manpower and combat materials of the enemy, linking the frontal attack with the attack on the enemy’s rear by units within the enemy lines. For this purpose, to form strong counterattack forces,destroy and wipe out the strength of the enemy by successive positive operations and further expand the struggle in the enemy’s rear by the units of the People’s Army. To this end, to heighten further the fighting morale of the soldiers and strengthen their ideological preparations. He said that the victory would not come of its own accord, and that the victory had to be won in the struggle with all sorts of difficulties and tribulations. ~The policy and measures put forward by him at the meeting made a great contribution towards winning the victory in the third stage of the war and a final victory in the war. One day before this meeting, in Ryongrim-myun, Jagang Province, Comrade Kim I] Sung met a commander of an army corps who had retreated with his combined units from the line of the Rakdong River, breaking through the enemy’s line. He told the commander of the army corps that the Party had already decided to place him in command of the army corps now operating in the enemy’s rear, and went to an operational map. He seemed to have already planned the campaigns through many stages and looked far into the future. Pointing at the operational map, he said: “ .The enemy is in great confusion here in the areas along the Chungchun River, on the shore of Jangjin Lake and in Chungjin, having sustained heavy blows during our first campaigns and its offensive having been frustrated. The enemy has 321

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chosen the area along the Chungchun River as the main target of its offensive. The enemy has hurled into the area more’ than 10 army divisions under the Eighth U.S. Field Army, its main force. The auxiliary targets of the enemy in its offensive are the central and eastern parts of the front. This is precisely what we had foreseen. The human butcher MacArthur is frantically preparing the so-called Christmas general offensive to seize the whole territory of the North before December 25... .” He laughed heartily and fully, tickled at the enemy’s jargon. At this time when MacArthur had suffered a severe defeat at the northeastern front and in the line north of the Chungchun River in particular,

and had been beaten back, he talked

as though in a delirium. “Convey to the U.S. soldiers, that when they arrive at the Yalu River, they will be home—I confirm my statement that they will be home for Christmas.” Synchronizing with this, U.S. President Truman warmed up MacArthur, saying that the “unconditional surrender of the North Korean Army” was the primary condition for the solution of the war and that in the not distant future MacArthur would conclude a pact of surrender on the Dooman and Amrok Rivers. Comrade Kim I] Sung regarded their rashness as a hideous subject of mirth and despised it. “When will our second operation start?” The commander of the army corps, who had been inspired by his hearty laugh, asked the question, hoping to know the date. It is just at the time when the enemy will open a new offensive. Judging from the enemy’s current scheme, it will be a-

round the 24th or 25th of this month.” Following this, he explained a plan for counteroffensive operations.

“The western part of the front, as you see here, is the main target of our attack. When we surround and annihilate the | main force of the enemy, the Eighth U.S. Field Army that has Si

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concentrated here (he explained, pointing to the area along the Chungchun River), we will be able to crush it by cutting the whole enemy front into two, the western

and the eastern.

This will throw the whole enemy line into confusion, placing the enemy in a precarious position. On the other hand, we will be able to take prompt coordinated actions with our units operating in the enemy rear, by breaking the western front.” He continued, pointing with a red pencil to the eastern and central parts of the front: “Our army units here, too, should immediately advance to Hamheung, beating back the enemy troops they meet on their way, and join forces to surround and annihilate the enemy. Thus we shall envelop the enemy also in the areas of the auxiliary target of attack. In our counterattack we should not only drive the enemy troops back but also surround and smash them by attack in different parts.” After explaining in detail the strategic and tactical policy and operational

plan like this, he said on the mission of the

second front unit which would be led by the commander of the army corps. “At the early stage of the second campaign, the units operating at the back of the enemy should seize control of these highways linking Pyongyang with Kaesong, Pyongyang with Singe, and Yangduk with Wonsan, to strike at the fleeing enemy troops. At that time, they will wander about in a large encirclement. But the villainous enemy will desperately attempt to form an intermediary defence line along the 38th Parallel with runaway troops and operational reserve units. In view of this, our units operating in the enemy’s rear should control the 38th Parallel without losing time, keeping step with our successful attacks, intercept and hit the enemy’s reinforcements coming from the south and thereby completely foil the enemy’s attempt to form an intermediary defence.” And pointing to the enemy’s line marked by the blue pencil, 3823

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he pointed out in detail the mortal, weak points of the enemy. “The enemy has an expanse of front extending over 400 kilometres from the area of the Chungchun River to Chungjin. It is the line of mountainous areas, almost completely indented. Therefore, though the enemy has hurled in here tens of divisions, a crack has been inevitably caused between the western, central and eastern forces. The flanks of the enemy which made attacks mainly along the highway has already been exposed by us. Another defect of the enemy is slowness in coordinated action between the forces. The Eighth U.S. Field Army, the main force of the enemy (the western part of the front), the U.S. X Corps (the central part of the front) and the First Corps of the Syngman Rhee puppet army (the eastern part of the front) are acting independently under the direct command of MacArthur, “Commander-in-Chief of the U.N. Forces” in Tokyo, Japan. For this reason, however loudly MacArthur may thunder and take command of them, confusion is always created in the cooperation system and the leading system between the enemy forces.”

As Comrade Supreme Commander had expected, the enemy launched a general offensive on November 24. Our army units in the western part of the front switched over to a decisive counterattack on November 25, liberated Pyongyang on December 26, and after that further speeded up the attack, giving the enemy not a moment’s respite. Large annihilation operations were unfolded in the central and eastern parts of the front. In particular the brave soldiers of the People’s Army, who fought a hard battle in counterattacking the enemy on the shore of Jangjin Lake, crossing and recrossing steep mountains over 1,000 metres above sea level in the dead of winter, filled the snow-covered shore of the lake and valleys with the corpses of the enemy. In the wake of this, | the People’s Army stormed ant hit the enemy in the broad 324

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areas of Narth and South Hamgyung Provinces. Meanwhile, the second front units active in the vast areas of Kyunggi, Kangwon, South Pyungan and North Hwanghai Provinces intercepted and successively smashed the “goods ordered.” (The soldiers fighting in the enemy lines called the runaway enemy “goods ordered” because what Comrade Supreme Commander had expected came true.) A monster called the Eighth U.S. Army was beheaded. That was because Walker, fleeing Eighth U.S. Field Commander, together with his 80-odd aides-de-camp, was attacked by a reconnoitering party of the People’s Army and all went down to the shades, on the road south of Jinkok-7z, Ryunchun county. The enemy was completely repulsed south of the 38th Parallel already during the second operation from November 25 to December 24. Over 36,000 officers and men, including more than 24,200 U.S. soldiers, were crushed, and the U.S. imperialists lost large quantities of war materials. Therefore, even the “New York Herald Tribune,” that most vicious paper, could not but regret that “This is the greatest defeat in the history of the U.S. army.” The aggressors were dumbfounded. The dream of“Christmas roast” was changed into the darkness of failure and despair. Because of this defeat, in no time MacArthur was dismissed from the office of Commander of the U.S. Far East Command and Commander-in-Chief of the “U.N. Forces,” and retired from active service. The vulnerability of U.S. imperialism was brought to light before the whole world. There was no more “mightiness” nor

prestige.

The scoundrels were squirming in humiliation and

despair. Under the agile command of Comrade Kim I] Sung, our army units continued the advance south of Seoul and successively waged the third and fourth operations by active defence, or by shifting to stubborn position engagements and so on, there3825

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by delivering annihilating blows on the Yankee imperialist aggressors and their running dogs. This course once again showed the incomparable, distinguished strategy and tactics and the art of command of Comrade Kim II Sung. In particular,a mobile move in three dimensions, spreading the second front into the enemy lines in combination with the main attacking forces, sandwiching the enemy from both front and rear and wiping them out inspiringly was a unique art of war that only he, the brilliant commander of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, could create. There are, of course, examples of attacking the enemy from the front and the rear as well, in the war history of the world.

But these were all guerrilla struggles of the people in the rear in combination with the main front. At the time of World War II, there was the “second front” of the U.S. and British imperialists to match the Soviet-German front. But it was not asecond front formed within one country. Not only so. That was designed to follow up the aim of the U.S. and British imperialists, fishing in troubled waters when both Germany and the Soviet Union were shattered and weakened in strength, in the Soviet-German war which decided the outcome of the war. Different from all these cases, the second front created by Comrade Kim Il Sung was for the large-scale units of the retreating People’s Army to occupy vast areas within the enemy

lines, liberate the people from the occupation of the enemy and carry out complete regular military operations. Not only that, this second front was a front to take the initiative firmly in active combination with the main front, as a complete component part in the accomplishment of the main strategy, and throw the enemy into a large encirclement and hit them. The art of war of Comrade Kim II Sung, who formed this

second front in combination with the main front and used it to 3826

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its best, was an original plan unprecedented in the history of war. Because Comrade Kim I] Sung devised such brilliant strategy and tactics, and applied them directly, the units of the People’s Army were able immediately to switch over from retreat to large-scale annihilation operations, drive the enemy into the complete defensive and crush them successfully. The successive victories of the Korean People’s Army drove the U.S. imperialists and their stooges to terror and despair, and by contrast, filled the progress- and justice-loving peoples of the world with enthusiastic joy. All the warm-hearted people across the globe from young to old, called out the word “Korea,” the name of delightful revenge upon U.S. imperialism and the name of hope and victory. Even those who had known only that Asia was east of Europe, looked at the map of Korea and shouted “Korea! Korea!’ excited like poets. In the cities of the capitalist countries, to say nothing of the socialist countries, demonstrations of working people supporting the just struggle of the Korean people and denouncing the U.S. imperialists for the atrocities were staged. At the meetings and events of international democratic organizations, the Korean question shone brilliantly like a beacon fire as the main question. Korean representatives making their appearance at these sites were showered with bouquets and welcomed in a whirlwind of cheers. A Korean delegate who attended a conference for world peace held in Warsaw, made a 20-minute speech and was cheered for more than half an hour. No sooner had the Korean delegate exposed the criminal atrocities of U.S. imperialism than all the participants in the conference joined in condemnation of the U.S. imperialists with indignation; as soon as he introduced the heroic struggle of the Korean people, all the people present at the conference led by the delegates of the African countries 327

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shouted “Long live Korea!” at top pitch, hoisted him shoulderhigh and cheered him, dancing. Whatever country Korean people visited, they received the most enthusiastic welcome everywhere they went, they won applause and were overwhelmed with bunches of flowers. Children brought their dolls and toys and hoped to send them to Korean children, and grown-ups asked the Korean delegates for their autographs. They regarded it as a honour to have the Korean people with them. Tramcars and trains ran with a large portrait of Comrade Kim I] Sung framed with flowers. To tell the truth, Korea had never received such enthusiastic

cheers since the creation of the world. This was eloquent testimony of the fact that the blood shed by the Korean people in the war was defending the revolutionary cause not only of the Korean people but also of all the peoples of the world, and that each victory by the Korean people was of world importance.

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4.

Among the People and the Soldiers

THE WAR was arduous. ~ There was no distinction between the front and the rear. The whole country was fighting. The Korean War, the fiercest modern war, was a threedimensional struggle and a total war in all respects. It was also a war between two systems, a life-or-death struggle between the people’s democratic system established in the northern half and the capitalist system. Comrade Kim I] Sung attached importance to this very point. He was determined to drive into the earth in total defeat the U.S. imperialists who were justly condemned to death, even if they were big in build and economically and_ technically developed, by fully displaying the superiority of the people’s democratic system. Nonetheless, the superiority and might of this system alone could never be demonstrated. Comrade Kim I] Sung displayed political originality with boundless passion amidst the fire of war. He adjudged the situation of soldiers and the front line in association with the people in the rear, without exception, and even a trifling phenomenon

in the rear in direct combination

with the front. At this time, the U.S. imperialists who had fled south of the 38th Parallel tried to recover from their defeat by every means Sy)

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in their power. While pretending to be concerned about peace, behind the scenes the U.S. imperialists hatched a plot to declare a “state of national emergency,” further expand military equipment and army enlistments. They made, at the same time, desperate efforts to escalate the war, hurling into the Korean front fresh troops from their many satellite countries including Australia, Turkey, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand and Luxemburg. The U.S. Far East Command was kicking up the dust. There were some funny happenings. To cover up the crushing defeat suffered before the eyes of the whole world, they put out the phony line that the failure in the “Christmas general offensive” was due to the “severe cold” in North Korea and the “unhappy climate.”

It was,

indeed, such a novel “idea” that

one could not help laughing at it. On the other hand, they threatened to drop an atomic bomb and march again when the azaleas bloomed again. ~The USS. imperialists reinforced their military strength and undertook a new military adventure. The war became severer. The situation demanded that to cope with the prolongation of the war, the front and the rear should be strengthened and that preparations should be made for a decisive attack upon the enemy. At this juncture, the front, of course, was winning great victories, but the situation of the country was difficult. One difficulty after another was met in all areas and all lives. Among other things, difficulties and disorderly phenomena which appeared during the temporary retreat had not yet been eliminated. In the areas more lately liberated from the occupation of the enemy, Party organizations and organs of people’s power had not yet been restored. Cities and factories had been reduced to rubble and most villages had been bombed into vacant land from which merely ashes arose. The people’s livelihood was, 330

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in truth, facing terrible hardship. Having deeply examined the trend of development of the war and the general situation of the rear, Comrade Kim I] Sung, Supreme Commander, judged that only if he corrected the defects that arose during the retreat, as soon as possible, and restored and consolidated the rear, would he be able to ensure the work of the Party and the State in conformity with the needs of the front, and mobilize the masses of all the people for a decisive attack upon the enemy. With a great plan to arouse the masses of the Korean people to victory, he held the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on December 21, 1950.

At the Plenum, Comrade Kim I] Sung delivered a report entitled ““The Present situation and our immediate tasks.” In his report, he summed up the course of the war for half a year and presented tasks for victory in the war. Comrade Kim II Sung put forward the question of strengthening revolutionary discipline as the first and foremost task. Criticizing disorderly phenomena revealed partially during the temporary retreat, he emphasized that the more the difficulties that appeared before the Party and the revolution, the more Party discipline had to be strengthened and the more firmly the unity and cohesion of the Party ranks had to be defended. He taught as follows: “One of the basic conditions for enabling us to rout the vicious enemy and win glorious victory is to strengthen Party discipline more than ever and rally our own ranks around the Central Committee as firmly as steel....To carry out the instructions of the Party correctly and in good time, going through fire and water, should be the attitude dominating the whole Party. He laid stress.on the fact that the Party membership should uphold the banner of criticism and self-criticism, strongly 331

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developing a struggle to strengthen Party, state and military disciplines. This teaching of Comrade Kim II Sung’s put forth a programmatic task to consolidate the unity and cohesion of the whole Party on the basis of the unitary ideas of the Party and made clear the firm principle always held fast to in Party activities.

The Workers’ Party is a Marxist-Leninist Party and a militant party fighting for the revolution. Therefore, if the Party wanted to fulfil its mission without fail, steel-like unity of the Party based on the principle of democratic centralism was necessary and the whole Party must act as one man upon the orders and instructions of the Chief, the Leader of the Party, and the decisions of the Party, the embodiment of his ideas. Only when the entire Party membership and working people had established the unitary ideological system, firmly arming themselves with the ideas of the Leader, being boundlessly faithful to his teachings, defending with their lives Comrade Kim I] Sung, the respected and beloved Leader, without vacillation in any storm and stress, at any time and at any place, and unconditionally accepting and carrying out the teachings of the Leader and the decisions of the Party, would they be able to win the war. In connection with the military situation at the front, Comrade Kim I] Sung put forth the development of a positive pursuit battle against the enemy and especially, submitted that it was an important task to oppose dogmatism, and thoroughly to establish Juche in military activities. He presented them with many militant tasks, including the question that whoever might give assistance and by what means, the entire people as masters

of the revolution had to

display the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance, build organs of the Party and political power quickly and well in the rear, 332

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restore the people’s economy by all means and aid the front, turning the rear into a rock-firm fortress by arming the people with firm confidence in victory. As stated above, at the meeting, Comrade Kim I] Sung elucidated the clear-cut means to arm the entire Party membership firmly with revolutionary discipline and revolutionary spirit and overcome all difficulties and clear bottlenecks, thus heightening the fighting power of the Party and arming the Party members and the people with strong conviction in final victory. Indeed, the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the

Party constituted an epoch-making point in all realms of Party and state life. Activating the organizations of the Party, he waged a strong ideological struggle against disorderly acts revealed in part during the retreat. Especially, he dealt a resolute blow at the factional elements acting as they pleased without principle within the Party. In this course, revolutionary discipline was set up thoroughly in all fields; the unitary ideological system of the Party was being established, carrying out everything the Leader and the Party demanded; and the revolutionary fighting will and the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance sprang up. In every area, Party organizations were firmly strengthened and the organs of the people’s power were actively set going. While raising the leading role and fighting power of the Party, Comrade Kim II Sung put forth the main orientation of ideological education of the army and the people and strongly pushed ahead with it. According to his policy, the organizations of the Party vigorously developed their political and ideological work. The backbone of the Party political work lay in cultivating unlimited loyalty to the Leader and the Party among the people and soldiers, giving them the firm conviction of final victory and 333

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arming them with the glorious revolutionary traditions of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, organized and waged under Comrade Kim Il Sung who had accomplished the cause of national restoration, not succumbing to trials and hardships for 15 years in the thick forests of Mt. Baikdoo. In this manner, the Party members, the people and the People’s Armymen devoted themselves to the struggle for victory in the war, with the lofty ideas of firmly believing in final victory and sharing life and death with the Leader like the anti-Japanese guerrillas who had safeguarded Comrade Kim I] Sung with their lives and been boundlessly faithful to the orders and instructions of their Leader. Comrade Kim I] Sung correctly led the struggle against the counterrevolutionary

elements.

The U.S. imperialist aggressors who had forced into the northern half of the Republic temporarily, spread many spies and organized many reactionary bodies including “Chiandai” (Peace Preservation Corps) with unsound people of some social standing, thereby massacring the people. By doing this, the aggressors schemed to put the people at variance with each other like the enemy and keep them from being united. But by the wise policy of Comrade Kim I] Sung, the intrigues ‘of the enemy ended in smoke. Emphasizing that one should not be deceived by the manoeuvres of the U.S. imperialists, he taught the principled stand to be held fast to in the work with the people whose social and political backgrounds were complicated. He taught that one should clearly distinguish enemies from friends, thoroughly subdue a handful of vicious elements, and embrace and educate the people who had followed the enemy unconsciously. This policy of correctly combining the class line with the mass line was a positive one, aimed at doing away with the base on which the enemy could set foot, embracing broad sections 3834

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of the people and organizing and mobilizing them for the destruction of the enemy by liquidating a handful of wicked elements. It goes without saying that in the course of this activity, the class consciousness of workers and peasants as well as the’bereaved families of patriotic martyrs, was raised high. The brutal nature of the enemy was laid bare and they were completely isolated, and instead of making profits, they met the angry resistance of the entire people. Only Comrade Kim I] Sung, who had accumulated rich experience in the struggle with the reactionaries since the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, could create the dialectics of such politics. Comrade Kim I] Sung built the Party and the people into one family, firmly united and filled with fighting spirit, and at the same time, carefully led the activities of the People’s Army. In particular, he took active measures on questions such as the need to further improve and adequately use all military equipment, adapted to the topographical features of the country and the actual condition of the war, the question of organizing mountain battles and night battles skilfully, and the question of boosting firepower and attacking the enemy in an annihilating way by the close coordination of operations of the artillery and the infantry. These measures further hastened victory in the war. During those days, the U.S. imperialist aggressors were planning frontal attacks and landing operations from the sea, preparing for a large-scale offensive, and at the same time, were conducting a “limited offensive.” Comrade Kim I] Sung put forward a policy for crushing the enemy with mobile attacks and counteroffensive actions designed to exterminate the manpower and war equipment and maierials of the enemy on a large scale; he went often to the front in person and heightened the fighting morale of troops.

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In the early dawn of one day in March 1951, he called ona certain unit carrying out a new combat mission after having returned from the line of the Rakdong River. As soon as the commander of the battalion made a report on the ranks to him, he praised all the soldiers with the words: “All comrades serving with the colours! I express my thanks to you for valiantly fighting the enemy at the time of attack or in activities within the enemy lines.” “We serve the fatherland!” The soldiers shouted at the top of their voices. They were moved to tears. Stopping before a company laying a heavy machine gun in front of the ranks, he asked the company commander in detail about many problems. Quickly examining in detail the preparations for action of the soldiers, from weapons and equipment to provisions and ammunition, he unexpectedly told them to take off their military shoes. As soon as the soldiers had taken off their military shoes, he stooped down and thoroughly investigated whether the military shoes were worn out; if they had swollen feet; whether their socks were clean and if they had put their socks on properly. It was solicitude such as only parents letting their sons go away on an arduous and long journey can show, as only affectionate and careful parents can extend. After that, he heard a story about a heavy machine gun carried to the line of the Rakdong River, so he broke it up and reassembled it in person, and praising the men, he said: “...The combat experience you have gained is very precious. In addition to such experience, if you are armed ideologically and combine combat with political training skilfully, there is nothing to fear. Men of old took surplus foodstuffs with them when wrestling on the day of the Boys’ Festival of May. 336

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Fully prepared like this, they could carry off the prize for an ox. Therefore, we, fighting the enemy, should always train ourselves well and be firmly prepared for action, shouldn’t we? Whether the enemy makes an attack from within or from without, we must knock him out in the fighting....” Listening to the words of the Leader, into which great ideas were compressed in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, the soldiers were firmly resolved to deal with any enemy at one

stroke for the Leader and the revolution. Comrade Kim I] Sung who deeply loved the soldiers, frankly received them with deep affection at any time, and was very glad to exchange combat stories with them. Late in June that year, he called seven heroes and model fighters fulfilling the mission of defending positions along the 38th Parallel. When they were about to enter the garden at the Supreme Headquarters, wrapped in joy, he came along with a beaming face as if receiving matchless honoured guests. “You heroes have just arrived! Thank you for your long journey!” _.. And then are all combatants fighting at the front in good health?” Hardly had the Leader asked this, receiving them with pleasure, when a member replied: “Comrade Supreme Commander! We combatants in the first line are valiantly fighting in good shape under your warm love and hearty care.” Leading the soldiers into a room, Comrade Kim I] Sung heard many stories about achievements in the war and then said on the prospective of the war: “Our People’s Army and the people rallied as one man rock-firm around the Party, will surely win over the enemy and achieve final victory. But to win victory, we will go through 3387

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more arduous trials in the future. What I want to tell you today is this.” He went on: “You must not think that the U.S. imperialists will take their

hands off Korea of their own free will and get out of here.... They are now forced to humble their pride and are making desperate efforts to trample underfoot the southern half of our country continuously and realize their aggressive design by any means. We cannot yield an inch of land to them.... We must liberate the southern half of the fatherland at any cost....We have to annihilate the U.S. imperialist aggressors aiming at us, to the last.” In these words the soldiers felt the firm confidence and fighting will of Comrade Supreme Commander and felt his warm trust in all the men heroically fighting amidst the rain of shells. Saying: “I must give a present to these comrades,” he called the name of each soldier and gave hima burp gun on which the slogan was engraved “Crush the U.S. imperialist aggressors!” with the name of each combatant. He looked at the soldiers standing with burp guns in their hands and said: “This gun is soaked with the precious blood and sweat of many revolutionary martyrs and people of this country. And the gun is studded with the demand of the Party and the aspiration of the people for wiping out the enemy, defending the fatherland, especially liberating the people of the southern half still groaning under the yoke of the U.S. imperialist aggressors. You must exterminate the U.S. imperialist invaders to the last with this gun.”

“We serve the fatherland!” The heroes held their gun butts fast and es their — loyalty to the Leader. This same day, Comrade Kim I] Sung had dinner with the 3838

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heroes in a family atmosphere, with many cadres of the Supreme Headquarters present. Ushering the heroes to the table, he said: “T am sorry I cannot suit your taste. If you went home,

your mothers would make delicious foods for you, rejoicing over your return home from the front. But I cannot... .” Truth to tell, the heroes cried in their hearts, ae veel sh this warm love of their Leader. The Leader had handed his only blanket to his men and sat up late by the bonfire in the raging snowstorm in the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle in the 1930’s, and when one bowl of parched-rice powder was left he gave it to his men. His warm love for them was higher than the sky and deeper than the sea, and like a spring, it would never dry up. At that time they felt a lump in their throats, and could not take the spoon or chopsticks. He said: “Help yourselves. If you don’t have enough, I will feel sorry for that,” and placed the bowls of noodles before them and filled their glass with wine. Affected by his feelings, warmer than their own parents, their eyes were wet with tears. He watched with affectionate eyes the heroes taking their meal and proposing a toast. “There is a song you sing at the front. Please sing that song,” he asked for that. They first sang “The Song of General Kim I] Sung.” The heroes and the cadres of the Supreme Headquarters each sang a song in turn according to the order of seating. When their turns had come to an end, Comrade Kim I] Sung said with a smile: “Then, it is my turn!” Saying: “In those

days of the anti-Japanese guerrillas, we used to sing such a song,” he sang the following: In the night of the dense forests of Mt. Baikdoo 339

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When we look at a bright full moon We yearn after the beautiful fatherland Oh, we will devote ourselves to the revolution And surely restore our homeland The song sung by their Comrade Supreme Commander touched the hearts of all deeply. Before their eyes emerged the image of the Leader who had crushed the Japanese imperialists, shrinking the thick forests of Mt. Baikdoo and the steppes of Manchuria for over 15 years with his ardent wish to restore the homeland, and they felt again deep in their hearts how precious the fatherland restored by him was. He had sung this song for them to the end that they would defend the priceless homeland with their lives and restore without fail the southern half of the fatherland which was still being trampled under the jackboots of the enemy They unanimously determined: We will smash the U.S. imperialist aggressors, the sworn enemy, till finished, defend the homeland and restore the other half of the fatherland with the guns given by Comrade Kim I] Sung, even if we die while fighting the enemy.... Back to the front, they conveyed a greeting of the respected and beloved Leader addressed to all the soldiers on the burning heights. The fighting morale of the soldiers rose to the sky. They engraved the pledges “For the Party and the Leader! For the homeland and the people!” “Don’t yield an inch of land to the enemy!” and “Crush the U.S. imperialists to a finish!” on the stone wall and on the trunks of the tree, and severely

attacked the enemy.

Through all this time the 606.6 Height, Hero Kim Chang enemy which was checking the with his red chest burning with 340

soldiers fought like lions. On Kul blew up a pillbox of the advance of the People’s Army, loyalty to the Leader. It opened .

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the way for the march of the unit. Hero Kang Ho Yung was seriously wounded in both arms and both legs in the Kamak Hill Battle, so he rolled into the midst of the enemy with a hand grenade in his mouth and wiped them out, shouting: “My arms and legs.were broken. But on the contrary my retaliatory spirit against you scoundrels became a thousand times stronger. I will show the unbending fighting will of a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea and unflinching will firmly pledged to the Party and the Leader.” Nurse An Yung Ai, who rescued tens of wounded soliders under the saturation bombing and strafing of the enemy’s planes and was critically injured said, as she breathed her last: “The Workers’ Party brought me up and taught me. The Party is my life. Please pay my Party membership fee. And please send my Party membership card to the Central Committee of the Party.” Hero Han Kye Ryul fighting the battle in defence of the hill, upheld the beacon of the noted ““My Hill Movement.” He said: “No, we cannot yield this hill to you scoundrels in the least. We die with this hill and live with this hill. This hill is my hill... . Comrades, give death to the enemy, the hill of the fatherland is my hill.” The fighters, boundlessly faithful to the teachings of the Leader,

launched

the

aiming to shoot down

“Aircraft-Hunting

enemy

Groups

Movement”

planes with sniping rifles.

The

hearts of the People’s Army shooting with sniping arms at enemy planes swooping down at them! There is nothing stronger than this in the world! While leading the army and the front like this, Comrade Kim I] Sung also directed his enormous energies to taking care of the livelihood of the people in the rear, and leading their struggle. During the busy days of the war his care for the people’s livelihood was a daily routine. He even took time to 341

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help the peasants in harvesting and threshing, and helped them | work on the farm and sowed seed in the spring. “When the people eat boiled foxtail millet, we must have it too.” He said this to his adjutants and ordered them to make the life of the Headquarters very frugal and plain. Wherever he went he looked after the towns and villages turned to debris by the bestial bombing of the Yankees. Concerned about the life of the people, he visited the dugouts where they were living and looked after the livelihood of the people, and at early dawn he called on war orphans and gave his paternal love to them. The most important thing to him was the life of humanity and of the people. He said to the leading functionaries of Party and state organs. “...The work of stabilizing the people’s livelihood is the important work on a state-wide scale, on a Party-wide scale and socially. However desperately the U.S. imperialists may destroy our country and reduce it to ashes and scorched earth, if the people survive we can rehabilitate our fatherland as a strong country after the end of the war. Comrades! The work of holding dear and relieving the people is our most important work.” By his careful solicitude, the people received tremendous care even under the conditions of the war. The War-Victims Relief Committee gave provisions and clothes to all war sufferers and furnished even house construction funds for them. All-state and all-people relief work was organized for the bereaved families of patriotic martyrs, disabled soldiers and rear families of the People’s Army. Comrade Kim I] Sung adopted in good time a measure to raise war orphans on a state-wide scale. On his way to Pyongyang in December 1950, he met in Soonchun a woman whose husband had been killed in action, 342

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and who now lived with her four children. Though the woman worked hard, her livelihood was very hard because she worked alone and was liberated only recently from the enemy’s occupa-

tion. Saying that it was difficult to bring up four children alone, he consoled the woman. The woman told the Leader that it was nothing, but it wasn’t easy to rear four children, nor even

two, by herself. Comrade Kim I Sung who had given deep thought to the widows

and

orphans,

realizing

the difficulties of the woman,

immediately instructed cadres to build patriotic martyrs’children schools, elementary schools and nursery schools in every province, and had the State rear orphans and all the children the parents thought it difficult to bring up because of many chil-

dren. In this manner, all the orphans grew up quickly and warmly in the bosom of the country and the people. Though numerous

parents were victims, the orphans were never crying nor roaming through the streets. At that time some members of the fact-finding group of the Women’s International Democratic Federation going around various parts of the northern half wondered that they did not see an orphan or a beggar wandering about the streets, and asked about this from time to time. It was an unexpected and unusual thing for them. Seeing that the bedclothes used by the people were clean and good, they at last wondered how the people lived such a stabilized life despite the war. But through careful investigation, they clearly understood that all these results were due to the wise leadership and the warm care of Comrade Kim I] Sung, the great Leader. The result was that they finally marvelled at everything they saw in Korea.

Comrade

Kim I] Sung gave effect to a wage

system 343

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which workers and office workers were given both pay and goods, and cut part of tax in kind for needy peasants or exempted them from it. Across the country numerous schools at all levels were opened and the voices reading books did not stop anywhere even during the days of the hard-fought war. The number of students in 1951 amounted to about one million. When the robber U.S. imperialists rained down the bombs of death, the children went to school while their pencil cases rattled. If bombs were dropped, children lay down under cover in the grass. Then they went to school again, singing songs in queues like flocks of cranes.

In fact, the Yankees were unable

to break the life of the Korean children following after their Leader.

All the people were loved and cared for by the Leader,

and everyone devoted himself to the Leader and the country, so that the enemy could not destroy the life of the Korean people with whatever bombs they used. In the days of the war, Comrade Kim I] Sung carefully and completely protected what was precious to the country and the people, including even nature. No one was allowed to cut timber at random. Such as the following happened. One day the adjutants found a time bomb released by the enemy. It was not in a dangerous place, but they could not leave it where it was. Screwing up their courage, they removed the bomb which could have exploded at any moment. They took it to a lonely spot with many chestnut trees. A little later the bomb blew up with a terrific explosion. The Leader was working and came out at the sound. Immediately on hearing the adjutant’s report he went to the place of the explosion in person. Expecting to be praised for their. work, the hearts of the adjutants were bright and expectant. What happened? As soon as he got to the place of explo-

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sion, his face clouded.

With sad eyes he looked down at the many chestnut trees lying criss-cross from the explosion of the time bomb. As they stood there the adjutants began to fear what he would say. As they anticipated, he chided them for their bad judgement, saying: “The Yankees have dropped bombs day and night and felled a large number of the trees. But if you do the same, what will become of the trees ?” They hung their heads in shame, with guilty consciences, but even then, as they recognized the magnanimity of the mind of the Leader, embracing in his heart everything in the country with tenderness, they were overcome with new Joy. The incident was followed up by the adjutants planting several hundred chestnut seedlings in that area, thinking of the laughter of children who would pick up the chestnuts when the trees were fully grown. It was under the solicitude of this Leader that the people were able to overcome the severe adversities of the war. When the life of the country had been gradually stabilized, Comrade Kim I] Sung led the entire people out in the heroic labour struggle both to aid the front and strengthen the rear. He showed them that the basic direction of postwar rehabilitation and construction lay in “using all materials, and even all the backward means of production realistically and restoring all production organs, so using every potential to supply the front and preparing so that all the means of production could be quickly restored to the maximum after the war.” He encouraged the Party and the Government to work out a plan for the national economy, on the assumption that everything is destroyed, and he vigorously led them to carry out the plan. Heroically, the working class rehabilitated the production facilities that lay in ruins, braving the fierce enemy aerial bomb345

KIM IL SUNG

Comrade

Kim I] Sung encouraging and inspiring the peasants to a struggle for increased wartime production of food

ing, and set up many factories and enterprises underground. In response to an appeal from the mine workers which said “Boost wartime production and accelerate the speed of preparation for rehabilitation!” the workers in war production, transportation, forestry, machine tools, electrical appliances, communications and others launched an emulation movement to step up production. Trains rushed to the front with a powertul whistle in defiance of the enemy aircraft flying overhead like so many crows, and production continued in the underground tactories at night when even the birds had taken refuge in the mountains to avoid the buzzing of planes. Upholding the slogan “The struggle for provisions is the struggle for the fatherland!” he extended enormous material encouragement to the countryside and organized the all-people assistance movement to rescue the countryside under the then difficult situation. Indeed, the attention given by the Leader to the countryside could not be measured The dispatch of able 346

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cadres, the strengthening of Party organizations, the work of power organs and mass political work in the countryside, the establishment and expansion of many state agro-stock farms managed by war victims and petty farmers, house construction and finance for farming, the supply of relief goods sent by the people of fraternal countries and the rehabilitation of irrigation installations by state funds—all this received his attention. The farmers did not sit idle. They made dugouts beside their fields, camouflaged themselves and their oxen and busily carried on their farm work. Or they dashed to the front, loading bags of rice on the carts. The women ploughed instead of their husbands and brothers. In truth, the People’s Army, the heroes, and the way of the

women

who camouflaged themselves with grass and ploughed

the fields, driving oxen, will be tor ever printed on the memories of all generations to come, fostering lofty aspirations in them and bringing tears to their eyes. Great indeed is Comrade Kim I] Sung, who built up this inexhaustible strength, the Leader who was able to carry on such a government among the ruins. For Comrade Kim II] Sung the people’s democratic system was a treasured sword in the

hands of a general. What could the U.S. imperialists do before him ? The Republic stood firm like a fortress on the very soil where the enemy was defeated militarily, politically and morally. On this fortress, Comrade Kim I] Sung looked down upon the front through the billows of smoke.

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5.

Battle in Defence of Positions; Battle on Height

1,211

DURING the first year of the war, the losses of manpower and war materials of the U.S. imperialist aggressors were far more than one half of all their losses in World War IL. What must be taken into account is the fact that these losses were part of their political and moral defeat, and defeat in all their military operations, which makes the U.S. imperialist position one of unrelieved misery. In these circumstances the U.S. imperialists made even more desperate efforts, while building their defences along the 38th Parallel, they prepared for a new attack, with replenished manpower and combat materials. Facing

up to this, Comrade

Kim

I] Sung

laid down

the

strategic line for the fourth stage of the war, that of taking the initiative, moving over to stubborn battles in defence of positions and crushing the enemy attacks. In this fourth stage of the war the aim was to gain time and further strengthen the rear and the fighting capacity of the People’s Army, while holding firm the line already established by the positive operations in detence of the positions with large forces. The plan was also to inflict great manpower and combat equipment losses on the enemy, frustrate their scheme to — attack and change the balance of power between the enemy and the Korean people to the tavour of the latter. By this 348

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means, preparations to switch over to a decisive attack to win the final victory in the war were made. Comrade Kim II Sung’s military strategy on the position battle was original, a Juche military idea he advanced, with a scientific analysis of the new historical conditions, plus the natural and geographic features. It was an outstanding idea designed to defend the already-won revolutionary gains and ensure final victory. Comrade Kim I] Sung maintained that to be deprived by the enemy ot the already-occupied areas, would mean yielding the

revolutionary

gains

to the enemy,

and that this could

never be tolerated. Issuing trom this concept, he submitted the position battle as a Strategic line. Along with this plan ot battle in defence of their positions, to carry it into brilliant effect he adopted the remarkable innovation of turning the already-won positions into a mass ot tunnels, so that they could be protected from the enemy attack, using the most modern means of war. This tunnel-style deployment initiated by him brilliantly and concentrically reflected all the objective requirements of the Korean War. The Korean War was a modern. war, calling into maximum

operation the achievements of modern science at that stage, and was unparalleled in severity and barbarity. The U.S. imperialists tried to convert the positions of the People’s Army into a scorched earth, using heavy bombing and bombardments, and also dropping many toxic bombs and bacteriological bombs over the front and the rear in disregard of elementary norms. and humanity. To turn the front into tunnel positions in the struggle against the brutal enemy was advanced as a very pressing need. The tunnel position aimed to provide firm detence tor

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fighters and materiels of the war from the powerful bombing, the chemical and bacteriological weapons and the firepower of the enemy, allow the combatants to rest even in the hardfought battle, and sweep away the oncoming enemy at the very front line so that they could not advance even one step into the defence positions of our army. It was designed further to enable a decisive blow to be made on the enemy and make it impossible for them to hold their occupied line, providing a favourable starting position for a positive countercharge and surprise attack by our army. It was a powerful tunnel system against aircraft, artillery, tanks and chemical weapons combined with field-warfare-style fortifications. It was a most superior

and unique defence system in scale, toughness and strategic and tactical value unprecedented in the history of war. Accordingly, the units of the People’s Army went into this stubborn battle in defence of positions along the 38th Parallel from the middle of 1951. The early battle in defence of the positions of the People’s _ Army was very arduous. The enemy dropped more than 6,000 bombs a day on the average on the front over every division of our army, and showered tens of thousands of shells a day on the heights they aimed to take, the target of their attack. All the fronts were enveloped in flames. Whatever the defence establishments built at night were destroyed by the bombing and shelling by the enemy, the heroic men of the People’s Army had to repair quickly and build them up again. As supply routes from the rear were also bombed and shelled, the people were forced to cross the deep valleys and steep ridges in taking ammunition and provisions to the front. But the heroes of the People’s Army, with unqualified loyalty to the strategic policy of Comrade Supreme Commander, con- » stantly took the initiative in the struggle under the most difficult circumstances, firmly defended their positions and struck back 350

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every time with sledgehammer blows on the enemy who was planning a desperate offensive. Not only this, but the units of our army made bold surprise attacks on the enemy under the cover of night and increased defence preparations and made successful changes in the disposition of the units. Even during the fierce fire of the battles, the positions were built into solid tunnels. As the tunnel work was so great in scale and was carried out in the midst’of the severe struggle against the enemy, it was a very arduous task. He went to the tunnel construction site and encouraged the men, leading the work. Examining the uniforms and shoes of the soldiers, he asked

in detail about the inconveniences and whether masks and gloves were sufficient, and in person took a rock drill to the work, thus raising the morale of the troops. Encouraged by his fatherly leadership, both officers and men of the People’s Army carried the fight forward, overcoming all the difficulties and displaying marvellous initiative. At first they made all kinds of tools with gathered metal scraps at the firing-line smithy and drilled the rocks without explosives, and hauled several thousand cubic metres of wood up to the steep mountainside by hand in the teeth of avalanches and built the pillars of the tunnels with this. The construction site was like the battlefield. Indeed, the very struggle to build the tunnel position revealed the fortitude and unbending spirit of the People’s Army, applying in every detail the teachings of the Leader. The position of the People’s Army was turned into a tunnel position with thick walls like a steel fortress. By relying on tunnel position, the units of the People’s Army were able to deal devastating blows on the enemy on every hill where the enemy planes always rained bombs day and night, till the whole terrain was transformed. 3851

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The U.S. imperialists were completely bewildered. Their repeated military and moral defeats, dealt them by the might of the Korean people and the People’s Army, plus the pressure from the peace-loving peoples of the world, the sharpened contradictions within the imperialist camp, and with their soldiers overwhelmed with terror and war-weariness—the aggressors were driven into a tight corner. Under these conditions, they made a frantic search for a loophole through which to extricate themselves from the ruin at any cost. Finally they ordered Matthew B. Ridgway, Commander-in-Chief of the “U.N. Forces,’ who succeeded MacArthur, to agree to truce talks on June 30, 1951. While agreeing to the cease-fire talks to defeat the enemy’s aggressive ambitions, Comrade Kim I] Sung perceived clearly that even though the enemy was agreeing to hold truce talks, they had not given up their aggressive designs, and he made clear his attitude and position concerning the cease-fire negotiations. He clearly understood that the enemy would try to save themselves from the daily sharpening political and military predicament by holding truce talks and that they would scheme to achieve their aggressive aims which they could not win in the war, by the truce talks, pretending that they hoped to end the war and wanted peace. For this reason Comrade Kim I] Sung emphasized that the Korean people should not harbour any illusions about the U.S. imperialists and that they had to administer continual crushing blows on them and frustrate their aggressive aims even in the cease-fire talks.

The cease-fire talks opened at Kaesong from July 10, 1951. This talk was between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and U.S. imperialism, the ringleader of world reaction. So Comrade Kim I] Sung, combining the two fronts of

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military affairs and political diplomacy, beat back the U.S. imperialists. In the armistice talks the U.S. imperialists did everything to prolong the talks by persisting in their stupid aggressive designs. | While laying bare the aggressive nature of U.S. imperialism before the world, Comrade Kim II Sung dealt it a strong political blow in the course of the cease-fire talks, through the senior member of the People’s Army. In this way, the negotiations in effect were changed into a theatre of trial, examining and pungently denouncing the robbers, called U.S. imperialists. The U.S. representatives were as impotent as locusts in the frost. No sooner had the U.S. imperialists failed in their piratic design in the negotiations, than they hatched a new plot to escalate the aggressive war behind the scene of the talks. Ridgway, Commander-in-Chief of the “U.N. Forces,” after hurriedly inspecting the Korean front, instructed Van Fleet, Commander of the Eighth U.S. Army, to “hot up the front during the negotiations, replace losses of men of the units, and put all the arms and ammunition necessary for a broad attack under the control of the first line unit.”” Van Fleet blared out that “The road to agreement in the cease-fire negotiations is possible only — when the U.N. Forces win militarily.” The enemy was intent on preparing for a decisive attack. Making as though to attack the western part of the front, they did everything in their power to undertake a decisive “summer offensive” against the eastern part. The plan of the U.S. imperialist aggressors in the “summer offensive” was to stage landings in the areas of Wonsan and Tongchun, and then to join up in the areas north of Hoiyang and Malhui-7i with those units deployed on the eastern and central fronts. The aim was to take and occupy the mountain areas, the important strategic points, held by the units of our 853

KIM IL SUNG

army in the eastern and central parts of the front, move the front up to the areas of Kaesong, Keumchun, Ichun and Wonsan, and from there to occupy all the areas of the northern half and continuously expand the war. They tried to win politically a so-called “honourable armistice” by “military pressure.” For this operation, the enemy poured a large force of 130,000 men, over 1,000 aircraft, many tanks and guns into the eastern part of the front alone, and prepared for a large-scale landing operation with tens of warships. At this time too the front situation of the People’s Army was very difficult. The defence positions were not yet built firmly and in addition, the worst flood in 30 years had blocked supply routes. To crown it all, as was made clear later, at this time the Pak Hun Yung and Li Seung Yup spy clique were brewing a wicked plot in the rear, on the orders of the U.S. imperialists. But it was all a pipe dream of the enemy. Comrade Kim I] Sung correctly saw through the enemy’s design in good time and made preparations for the defeat of the enemy plan. He judged beforehand that the main direction of attack of the enemy would be the eastern part, and strengthened further the defence depth of our army by moving without hesitation the necessary strength from the western part to the eastern part in a short space of time. This emergency measure taken by him with his superb judgement was a matchless example in moving units to a main battle area with mobility and speed.

The measures adopted and orders given by him, such as increasing the high-angle firepower in the mountainous areas where large-scale battles were expected, and the question of building defence positions so as to counterattack aircraft, artillery and tanks, played a very great part in the victorious outcome of the war | In particular, a decision of the Political Committee of the 354

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Central Committee of the Party, “On summing up the establishment of the organizations of the Workers’ Party of Korea within the People’s Army and on the work of political organs” adopted on July 27, 1951 at his instance, was of great importance in strengthening the Party political work within the units, and raising their fighting power. In July 1951, Comrade Kim II Sung gave a special mission to be carried out on Height 1,211 to a commander of an army corps, who was a veteran anti-Japanese fighter, and said: “The

enemy,

I think,

is aiming

at the whole

mountain

region of Height 1,211. But the enemy can never join the landing forces on the east coast, unless they break through this defence zone. Therefore, we must crush the enemy’s main force at this important strong point.” He ordered him to heighten the density of firepower at the front and direct a struggle against their guns. He taught him how to coordinate the infantry and the artillery, a plan already laid down by him, including the means to hit the enemy in coordinated action of the infantry and the artillery by emplacing powerful guns on the heights at the front. On August 18, the aggressors launched their so-called largescale “summer offensive” they had long waited for. The enemy pumped tens of thousands of shells and bombs at the positions of the People’s Army in the eastern part of the front, including Height 1,211, and made an attack with the support of numerous

tanks. But whenever they attacked, they fell like ninepins before the strong blows of the People’s Army, but they desperately stormed against the People’s Army. The position of the People’s Army was very difficult. Because of the unprecedented flood, the trenches and dugouts were flooded and raging waters 50 metres wide rushed down every gorge. But in spite ot this, the warriors of the People’s 355

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Army, all heroes, fought like undying birds in the flood and the flames, shouting “Long live the Leader!” and “Long live the Party!” When their gun barrels ran hot and bent, they rushed the enemy positions with hand grenades; if the hand grenades ran out, they rolled down rocks, thus filling the valleys with dead bodies of the enemy. ! In these summer days the water of the torrential rains, dyed with the blood of the enemy, rushed down like a river. The continued whirr and crump of shells shook the heavens and earth, bullets and shells filled the space, and hand-to-hand fighting, attacking and wiping out the enemy with ceaseless yells and roars...there was no limit or conception of time. This hot fighting continued for about a month over all the high and low hills on the eastern front, including Height 1,211. From August 18 to September 18, the brave men of the People’s Army eliminated over 78,800 officers and men and large quantities of war equipment of the enemy, thereby turning the “summer offensive” of the enemy into an offensive of death and of despair. The enemy was forced to tremble with fear by this ignominious defeat. The bosses.of the U.S. imperialist aggressor army sat on the mountain surrounded by the corpses of their soldiers and wrapped themselves in the Stars and Stripes, distressed with the crows. Just in this situation, Omar Bradley, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, painfully said that the “offensive was the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time and with the wrong enemy.” But the U.S. imperialists could not draw the lesson, even while crying. Again they were hell-bent on preparations for a large-scale “autumn offensive.” That U.S. imperialism was doomed to death was revealed more clearly in this step. The | more desperate efforts the U.S. imperialists made, the closer 3856

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drew the time of doom; the closer they came to death, the more frantically they struggled. The “autumn offensive” of the U.S. imperialists had the same operational aim as their “summer offensive.”’ The ostensible difference lay in the fact that they planned to lure the units of the People’s Army to the district of Kaesong, thinking that they could now accomplish the aim of the “summer offensive,” and simultaneously inflict another blow on the People’s Army in the western part of the front. On top of this, they prepared for a decisive attack on the areas of Height 1,211 in the eastern

part. The area of Height 1,211 was of great strategic and tactical importance as a strong point. It stands overlooking the intersecting point of the two highways leading from Rinje and Yanggoo in Kangwon Province to Malhui-7z7, Naikeumgang. Namely, Height 1,211 and Height 1,052 situated east of the road leading from Yanggoo to Satai-77 were the main mountain ranges and dominant heights linking Mt. Daiwoo, Kachil Ridge and Mai Ridge in a north-south line. Therefore, the enemy in the attempt to rush into the broad northern area, tried to bring this district under their control, even if they piled up their men’s corpses mountain-high.

Whether or not the People’s Army were able to defend Height 1,211, was indeed the key to the whole military situation of the front, affecting the war as a whole. Clearly understanding the enemy’s scheme and the war situation like the palm of his hand, Comrade Supreme Commander concentrated part of the defence units from the west coast

to the eastern

part of the front, and at the same

time

turned the important heights including Height 1,211 into a strong defence area, and built an even stronger defence system with deep and wide positions. He resolved to deal yet another deathblow on the enemy 3857

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in this front and demonstrate the mettle of the Korean people, explicitly showing that all the aggressive challenges of the enemy would only bring them to ruin. In accordance with this, measures were very quickly adopted to strengthen all the fronts, and the eastern front in particular. Among all units of the People’s Army were held Party meetings and soldiers’ meetings to strictly carry out the order of Comrade Supreme Commander, “Don’t draw back even a

step!’ Prior to a life-and-death struggle, all the officers and men hardened their will and sharpened their ideas, their blood tingled, looking up to the image of Comrade Kim II Sung, the legendary hero of the anti-Japanese armed struggle. They all were firmly resolved to be as the phoenix, rising from the flames like the anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters, and exterminate the enemy. Shouts of “Death to the U.S. imperialists!’ shook all the meeting halls. The combatants sent Comrade Kim I] Sung a letter “pledging to defend the priceless mountains and rivers of our fatherland to the last drop of our blood.” The enemy,

too, believed

in their hoped-for “victory.”

A

general of the U.S. imperialist aggressors said: “For the current autumn offensive we have mobilized the military strength of 15 divisions including the most honourable, most courageous and most wise First Marine Division of great America, and mobilized hundreds of tanks, all types of guns, and aircraft, the U.S. pride, toxic bombs and even searchlights. So this offensive will be a large-scale operation completely crushing the communist army and making it surrender.” But this balderdash was from one who had not drawn the proper lessons from the defeats. At last, on September 29, the enemy opened the “autumn offensive” in the western and eastern parts of the front. The | enemy’s attack was fierce and stubborn. 358

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The front was changed into a cauldron of flames, and hot engagements were waged everywhere. To get even a nameless valley or a ridge, fierce and gruesome battles were fought. The enemy swarmed in successive waves. But they were quickly the waves of corpses, who could not go back as they pleased. The fighters of the People’s Army were angry tigers and secular birds. Fighters who knocked out 10 or 20 enemies regretted that their victims were so few, even though they were shot down by the enemy; and breathing their last, they asked their comrades to take vengeance on the enemy.

At this time Comrade Kim I] Sung called on the phone to the commander of the army corps leading the battle on Height 1,211. It was deep in the night past 12 o’clock. As soon as the commander picked up the receiver, there sounded the strong and resonant voice of the Leader, which had been familiar for

a long time, every word understood and clear. The tone was powerful, merry and calm as usual. He praised the fighters on Height 1,211 for their distinguished military service and asked how the battle had gone during the day, whether his fighters were in good health and how they lived. He said: “All the men are a precious treasure for which nothing can be exchanged. Each combatant is a priceless revolutionary comrade-in-arms. What a pity it was that our revolutionary comrades-in-arms were so few when we fought the Japanese aggressors in the past. We must do our level best to look after the treasure....As it seems to be cold, you

must

see to it that

they take a warm boiled rice and hot soup and are not cold when they go to bed. And you must take good care of them so that they may not take cold.” © After a while he continued: “The more keenly they realize that it is the wish of their parents and the Party’s line that not even an inch of the sacred 359

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soil of the fatherland be yielded to the enemy, the better they will fight. You must let them know this.” The following day when the commander of the army corps conveyed his words to the men, moved by their Leader’s love, all rubbed their eyes with their fists. They unanimously made up their minds: “For the Party and the Leader who values and loves us like this, what should

we spare? If it is the wish of our parents and the demand of the Party that this Height be defended, we will defend this Height even if our bodies are ground to powder.” Even though occupied with many works, Comrade Kim II Sung went to the front line in defiance of danger and led the battle in person and encouraged the combatants. Or he examined the situation of the units of the front line over the phone or through couriers and raised the mettle of the combatants. The officers and men at the front gained great strength and courage every time, and more vigorously smashed the enemy. Over the areas of Height 1,211 severer battles than had ever been fought continued day and night. The enemy attacked this Height from the front over a whole month, but could not move forward even a step, only piling up their dead. So, this time they contrived to occupy the areas of Height 851, north of Satai-ri from which to assault Height 1,211 from the flank and the rear and hold it in a bid to disperse the strength of the People’s Army bit by bit. This time again quickly seeing through the enemy’s design, Comrade Kim II Sung instructed cadres to strengthen the defence of Height 1,211 more firmly and mobilize a powerful reserve unit for an emergency. Despite this, the enemy thought that the defence strength of Height 1,211 was split, and desperately closed in, pouring a large force in here. From the first day the U.S. imperialists 860

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brought out all kindsof combat materials and carried out the “largest bombing” and the “largest shelling.” On the heights, rocks broke and melted, and trees several metres in girth were

blown off root and branch. Even hiding squirrels jumped into the bosoms of soldiers and the clouds of dust ceaselessly rising shut out the sun’s rays. The mountaintops seemed to reduce in height. But the heroes of the People’s Army were not to be daunted They joked even in the powder-smoke and flames. Notwithstanding

this, when

the enemy

rushed

on them,

they shouted like gun reports and waged fierce battles, and even though they were wounded, they did not part with their guns. Even as they breathed their last, they groped for their hand grenades. During a short time between battles, they held meetings and resolved with words like bullets, upholding the order given by the Leader. They wrote a letter addressed to Comrade Kim II] Sung, Supreme Commander, as follows: “General Kim I] Sung, respected and beloved Leader! We are here in the trenches on Height 1,211. We have just ended the third battle today, and gathered here. The walls of the trenches have crumbled and the powder smell and smoke are still floating in the air. Before this smell of powder fades away, the enemy will crawl up again. Raining tens of thousands of bombs and shells... but upholding your order, our respected and beloved Leader of the people, to the effect that the soldiers must defend every inch of the fatherland with their lives and not retreat even a step, we will defend this height with our blood. Around our heavy machine guns, cartridges have been already piled up. We will fight until the hill of cartridges 361

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becomes a mountain. Following the example of the lofty revolutionary spirit of the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army led by you, our respected and beloved Leader, in person, all our squad members, united as one man, will give a more

merciless blood bath of revenge

to the enemy, fight him to the last drop of our blood and defend the height of the fatherland to the end. We will give the enemy his quietus with hand grenades when bullets run out or with human bullets when hand grenades are used up, and will surely win a victory.... Respected and beloved Leader! So long as we, your sons, are alive, Height 1,211 will shoot into the blue for ever as height of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Long live General Kim II] Sung! All members of the First Squad, First Platoon, Heavy Machine Gun Company, Second Battalion, 00 Regiment, Second Infantry Division, Korean People’s Army.” Truth to tell, it was a letter of pledge written with their hearts. The defenders of Height 1,211 were loyal to every letter of the pledge. The enemy showered more than 6,520,000 rounds of shells and over 4,160 bombs on the heights over every square kilometre in 1951 and mounted attacks on the People’s Army tens of times or hundreds of times a month. When a battalion went down, they closed in, dragging in their division. Bui the fighters of the People’s Army did not retreat even a step.

The battle on an unnamed height to the left of Height 1,211 was also fierce. The enemy persistently crept up, though they covered the mountain ridge with their dead. Every fighter of the People’s Army flung 150-200 hand grenades at the crowding enemy within two or three hours. The enemy were dealt an overwhelming blow and stampeded. 362

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On October 30, the enemy again threw their weight against our troops with the bulk of strength. With each passing hour the battle became severer. When the fighters beat back the enemy for the fifth time, communications were cut off and munitions were exhausted. The enemy came close to the trenches. But the squad had no hand grenades. The unnamed height was faced with danger. Having come to this pass, the fighters flew at the enemy like an angry lion, snatched their light machine guns and rifles and swept them away. In the course of repulsing the enemy’s charge 15 times, every fighter had no alternative but himself to smash tens of the enemy. They stabbed them with bayonets, struck them to death with their gunstocks and fought them, throwing back even hand grenades flung by the enemy. The fighters who had lost their sight and others critically wounded in their legs still carried ammunition and attacked the enemy. That night, the heroes of the nameless height tactically drew back on the instruction of the superior leading centre. At the dawn of the following day, the members of a model company storming party took back this height in a short space of time. In this battle, Li Soo Bok, Hero of the Republic, blocked the pillbox of the enemy with his own body, thus ensuring a

victory for the unit. He was a member of the Democratic Youth League, 19, and had written in his notebook before a charge: “Tam a youth of liberated Korea. Life is precious to me. So is my hope for a brilliant future. However, my life, my hope and my happiness are not so valuable as the fate of my fatherland. Nothing is more glorious, beautiful, more blissful than to dedicate my only life to our one and only fatherland.” He who cherished such a noble and lofty idea in his young heart at the age of 19, was no doubt a growing son, learning from the great Leader! It was true; he had received everything 363

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from the Leader and the Party led by him, so the Leader and the fatherland were indeed his mother. He chose to defend the security and youth of his mother by blocking the pillbox of the enemy with his body, rather than see again the mother who gave him joy, just to look at her, the mother now passing through such great danger. How powerful is the strength of the Leader, the power of his outstanding politics and the strength of his ideas! Hero Li Soo Bok was a flower of the Korean youth who had grown up in the bosom

of the Leader. The defenders of Height 1,211 were all Li Soo Boks and fought like him. However obstinately the enemy might assail them, there was no place for the Korean People’s Army to retreat.

Behind

them,

were

the factories and the land they

Defenders of Height 1,211 boundlessly loyal to Comrade Kim LI Sung, Supreme

364

Commander

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received from the Leader. There lay the beautiful life they had enjoyed for the first time from when they were born. There were parents, wives and sisters who lived and fought, believing

only in victory amidst the bombing of the enemy, and tiny younger brothers and sisters who learnt and frolicked. The fighters heard the strong voice of the Leader from all these lives and from every inch of the land, calling: “Don’t retreat even a step!” They had not land to retreat from. Only by stepping over the corpses of the routed aggressors, would they go back to their hometowns. They firmly were confident of final victory and drove back the aggressors with one mind and one body as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did.

When the young fighter destroyed a pillbox with his bloodtingling chest, another fighter became a human bomb with a bundle of hand grenades and plunged into the enemy. When a correspondent of a unit of the artillery restored the cut-off communications with his blood vessels. and an artillery man loaded his gun with a shell of vengeance, and breathing his last, shot at the enemy and shouted “Crush the U.S. imperialist aggressors.’ When a machine-gunner piled up cartridges mountain-high and shot the enemy dead, another combatant pulled out the safety pins of hand grenades till his teeth were broken and hurled them at the enemy. While the fighters on this height fought the battle, hurling back enemy’s hand grenades, the soldiers on another height rolled down rocks and knocked out the enemy. If a unit of an engineering corps was in danger while battling heroically, another reconnoitering party attacked the rear of the enemy. When a height was in danger, even cooks took part in the charge and medics and stretcher-bearers came out to join in the war of vengeance with bayonets in their hands. The greatness of Comrade Kim I] Sung and the Workers’ 365

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Party of Korea is clear, only from the fact that they reared such sons and daughters. Our fatherland shines with honour by the one fact that it gave birth to such children. For this reason whenever the enemy may attempt to bury their fangs in the flesh of our fatherland, the people will pitch a camp of life and death at once and fight them to the death. Such mass heroism of the Korean people and the People’s Army was an expression of their burning love for the fatherland, and a demonstration of their boundless loyalty to Comrade Kim I] Sung who had saved the country from darkness and had opened up a new life for the people. This idea and this strength became more invincible as they were led by his outstanding strategy and tactics. The enemy’s “autumn offensive” ended in their crushing defeat early in November. Having lost more than 79,000 officers and men and large quantities of combat materials, they could not even give a further challenge worthy of public attention for a time. It was a great victory tor the People’s Army. Height 1,211 they defended to the last, the Height of Heroes, covered with dead

bodies

of more

than

15,000

enemy

officers

and

men,

was magnificently soaring high in the sky, upholding the national flag of the Republic on its smoke-stained head. The U.S. imperialist aggressors were so upset by the battle for this height that their hearts broke, whenever they looked at it, so they called the height “Heartbreak

Ridge,” as no foe

came out alive once he went into the gorge around this height, they named it “Punch Bowl.” “The top-class weapons in the world have become incompetent tools now on the eastern front.” Such was the enemy’s cry. . Out of this flurry, on October 25, 1951, the enemy had no alternative but to put in their appearance again at the meeting 366

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hall of the armistice talks they had stopped at will. But there another political defeat waited for them.

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6. For Victory, For the Future

THE KOREAN WAR was in reality a long-drawn-out nightmare to the U.S. imperialists. Into their arrogant airs, with their eccentric megalomania, came a note of black despair

and deep bitterness. As it became clear that there was no escape for them in the Korean War, the U.S. imperialist ruling circles became visibly shaky. But as is their wont, with their aggression and savagery, the incarnation of beasts, with the arrogance of their great wealth,

they went on new rampages. They formed the hasty conclusion that however strong the strength of Korea, it must surely have a limit. The enemy hurled more than 60,000 of their strategic reserves waiting in Japan on the Korean front, in addition to their

already mobilized 550,000 troops, in an attack on Korea. Aircraft raided peaceful residential areas day and night in the most barbaric way, while, at the armistice talks, they did their best to undermine the negotiations, using the logic of pirates in their discussions on the many problems, including exchange of prisoners of war. Comrade Kim I] Sung could not disregard the actions of the US. imperialists, as though they were nothing, but recognized them as a last-ditch struggle of those who realized they were doomed to failure. The Leader, whose mind had penetrated 368

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everything to its depths, from phenomenon to essence, saw at a glance that the very ferocity of the U.S. imperialists merely covered their gasping for breath more than ever before. Comrade Kim I] Sung was more than ever firmly convinced of victory. The defeat of the U.S. imperialists, bleeding all over their body, was as clear as daylight to the Leader who had already looked afar to the rosy morning of Korea, even in the trying days of the early 1940’s when the writhing of Japanese imperialism had reached its highest pitch. The only question was, how to bring the victory to its earliest point. He gave his mind to the problem of eliminating shortcomings and weaknesses, obstacles to the achievement of victory in the life of the State as a whole. The problems were not a few. Because of the increased destruction caused by the enemy, the people’s livelihood was exceedingly

hard, as ever.

Rehabilitation and

reconstruction

was only partially possible and supplies to the front and the building of defence positions were far from adequate. At the same time, with the war long-drawn-out, spies and saboteurs did everything in their power to alienate the Party from the masses and undermine it from within. The determination of Comrade Kim II Sung was to strengthen the Party and the organs of power more firmly, and to mobilize the entire people so that the rear and the front could be converted into one solid fortress. First of all, he said, to achieve this the defects exposed in the organizational work of the Party had to be overcome. In those days, the anti-Party factional elements, including Hu Ka I, did not understand the character of the Party as the vanguard of the masses of the entire working people, led by the working class, nor did they understand the position, in which factory workers had been reduced in numbers owing to the war, nor did they try to understand it. These anti-Party factional 3869

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elements, who kept to the idea of maintaining the percentage of members of worker origin, refused to admit to the Party membership the broad toiling peasants fighting at the front and in the rear, displaying their patriotic devotion. The factionalists committed the grave mistake of rejecting, by any possible means, applicants for admission to the Party. If such bureaucratic actions, diametrically contrary to the mass character of the Party and the actual situation, had been left unremedied, the

Party would have suffered great losses in failing to consolidate unity with the peasants who made up the overwhelming majority of the population. Further, these factional elements put aside educational work, punished Party members and expelled them from the Party in an unprincipled way, merely because of some slight error during the retreat, and increased formalism and bureaucratism. Over the long term, these evil deeds but helped the enemy plot to disrupt the Party from within, and isolate the Party from the masses. In order to rectify such Right and “Left” errors weakening the Party, which was the general staff of the revolution in the days of this severe war, and to more firmly strengthen and mobilize all the patriotic forces for victory, Comrade Kim I] Sung called the Fourth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party in November 1951. He made a report entitled “On some defects in the organizational work of the Party structure.” In his report, Comrade Kim II Sung criticized the error of closed-doorism committed by some of the Party organizations in relation to increasing Party membership, and emphasized that all progressive workers, labouring peasants and working intellectuals fighting devotedly for the freedom and independence of the fatherland, both at the front and in the rear, should be admitted into the Party, thereby developing the Party into a more truly mass political party. He taught them: 370

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“We should recruit progressive patriotic elements from all walks of life into the ranks of the Party, and expand and strengthen the Party on this mass basis, while resolutely preserving the ideology of the working class and its leading role with the working class as the core of the Party.” At the same time, he emphasized the need to increase the core of Party cells, consistent with the Party organizational line when the ranks of the Party were being rapidly expanded. He taught that the error of trying to strengthen Party discipline by Party penalties, instead of heightening the voluntary discipline of Party members by political education, should be rectified, and that unwarranted penalties should be eliminated.

He criticized also the “Left”? tendencies among some Party organizations and some Party workers, to consider unnecessary the Democratic Front for the Unification of the Fatherland in that they did not distinguish between reactionary elements sneaking

into friendly parties, and their basic character.

He

made clear the tasks necessary to improve and strengthen the leadership of the Party in the Democratic Front for the Unification of the Fatherland. Emphasizing that without intensifying the Party’s guidance in the Democratic Front for the Unification of the Fatherland, the Party would fail to rally broad sections of the people around the Party, and would fail to accomplish the cause of national unification, he said: “In order to push ahead with the work of the Democratic Front for the Unification of the Fatherland as it should be done, the Party must teach members how to carry on the work with other friendly parties, and concentrate much effort into strengthening not only unity with the top circles, but also unity at the lower levels of Party members with the rank and file of the friendly parties. As the vast majority of the masses in all the lower levels of the various political parties and social organiza371

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tions now under the wing of the united front are toiling masses, they are our allies who are able to march forward with us.” The basic reason for all the shortcomings revealed in organizational work lay in the bureaucratic and formalistic style of work of some workers, he said, and called upon the entire membership to wage a strong all-Party struggle against bureau-

cratism and formalism. After the Fourth Plenum, within Party organizations a struggle was launched against “Left” tendencies, and the tendency to closed-doorism and penalties, in particular. Hundreds of thousands of workers, peasants, soldiers and excellent progressive elements of the working intelligentsia joined the Party. In this way the Party became an organization with a vast army of one million people, and developed into a vital and powerful mass political party, embracing all the people to its bosom. The support of the masses of the people and their trust in the Party were greatly deepened and strengthened. It was the leadership of Comrade Kim I] Sung that aroused the struggle to correct the “Left”? tendencies revealed in the organizational work of the Party, closely combining this struggle to eliminate bureaucratic and formalistic style and methods of work among the workers. Bureaucracy is an anti-popular method of control by the ruling class by which to oppress the people, a harmful attitude which cannot be tolerated in the people’s democratic system. But some workers had still retained their bureaucratic tendencies in no small degree in their work, a carry-over from the outdated ideas of Japanese imperialist rule; they had little experience in the revolutionary struggle and were not firmly established with the revolutionary mass viewpoint. Unless the bureaucratic tendency was uprooted, the Party could not build up its ties with the masses, nor could it lead the masses of the people to display their initiative and positive 37 2

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work. A speech delivered by Comrade Kim II Sung in February 1952 on “The tasks and role of the local power organs at the present stage,’ presented at the Joint Meeting of Provincial, City and County People’s Committee Chairmen and Leading Functionaries, was of great importance in the struggle against bureaucracy. The Leader said that to win victory in the protracted war against the enemy, the people’s committee, the only people’s power as executor of Party lines and policies, should be strengthened, and its range of tasks clarified to cement the people’s

power. He laid especial stress on the need to rectify bureaucratic styles and methods of work shown by some workers, and on maintaining close ties with the people. He commented sharply on the characteristic that, instead of listening to the voices of the people and working by persuasion in the direction demanded by the people, some workers commanded and ordered the people, carried on work arbitrarily, and acted like bureaucrats and aristocrats divorced from the people. He said on, rectifying bureaucratism: “The workers of the people’s power organs should be the

true workers of the people, workers who work in reliance upon the people, who value the interests of the people, persuade educate the people, not order them, always learning from people and wholeheartedly serving the people.” This speech became the guideline of the workers of Party and the organs of people’s power. What remained was to translate it into action, namely

and the

the

put it into practice. The issue was whether everyone worked by the popular style of work, and whether they mobilized the people to undertake the fierce struggle for production. In this struggle Comrade Kim I] Sung personally showed a 373

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great example, as he always did in everything. The following incident took place at Wonhwa-ri, Donammyun, Daidong county (now Wonhwa-7i, Soonan county) one day in May 1952. It was just before a twinkling starry dawn when he called at Wonhwa-ri. The village was asleep. An adjutant was about to awaken the master of the house, but the Leader stopped him. He, the Leader of the country, sat patiently on a bundle of straw in the chilly yard, waiting for the master to wake up from his sweet sleep. He kept the fire burning, forgetting his sleep, so that his men could sleep an hour longer in those days of the sharp anti-Japanese armed struggle.... Comrade Kim I] Sung went out into the fields with the farmers that day. He sat down on the grass, declining a cushion offered by the Chairman of the Ri Branch of the Democratic Women’s Union, and went into farming questions in detail. Then, in person, he took on some of the farm work with the peasants, and said to his adjutants: “When you sow seed, you must work in all sincerity. You must not sow seeds too thickly, nor must you plant them sparsely. Moreover, you must be careful not to spill valuable seed on the ground. You need to form ridges a little deeper. By doing it this way, the seeds can overcome a dry spell and take root.” He himself sowed seed and applied farm manure to the land, using a winnowing basket. At this very time enemy planes were flying continuously overhead. But he worked on in disregard of this, and explained to the peasants in his easy-tounderstand terms the meaning of the slogan “The struggle for provisions is the struggle for the fatherland, and the struggle to ensure victory in the war,” saying that when the soldiers had enough food, they would get more of the enemy. As the farmers worked with the Leader, all speeded up their work for joy. Even the old came out to the fields, deeply mov374

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ed by the presence of the Leader. Upholding the February speech of Comrade Kim II Sung, workers of Party and state organs throughout the country corrected their outmoded work style further, to strengthen their ties with the people, and shared the sweet and bitter of the workers and peasants in fanning the flames of the vigorous labour struggle. The result was that the peasantry more keenly realized the weighty task assigned to them in the war. Their hatred of the enemy was intensified, and their love of their country deepened. Their hearts were filled with intense feeling that their personal happiness and future lay in the security of the country. Accordingly, their way of thinking changed from what it had been but yesterday. Their interest was expanded from their lonely family limits and their levees, to the seething collective and social domains. This was a very precious gain. They formed oxen-sharing teams and labour-exchange teams and worked together helping each other, combining to overcome the problems of shortages of food, labour shortages, draught animals and farm implements. He valued this greatly as the first bud of the fruits of agricultural cooperation. Farming was also the battle. Peasants readjusted wastelands, filled the craters made by the bombing, and repaired roads and railways destroyed by the day and night attacks. It became daily routine for shy maidens to plough the fields, driving oxen as though they were puppies and drawing farm carts. Peasants of seaboard villages also did farming, fighting the advancing enemy by forming armed workteams. The enemy thought that if they bombed many times, all the Korean peasants would take all their belongings out on to the

highways to escape, and then wander about like fallen leaves in the wind, crying and screaming. What absolute nonsense! The peasants were actually steeled in the fires of the war as 375

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steel in a forge. The workers assured the maintenance of war production by all possible means when installations were destroyed and supplies were short. When the power was cut by the bombing, they turned machines by hand; when lathes were broken, they somehow reassembled them and continued production. Defying enemy planes, thick as crows, the trains continued rushing to the front. What ardent hopes ran those locomotives! And how many hands and shoulders worked to join up those railway lines cut by the bombs! An old man, able only to smoke a cigarette at midnight, who lost his daughter in a bomb raid, wiped away his tears with a strong hand when he heard the whistle of the train. The whistle of the train was a cry of victory from unyielding people. From Comrade Kim I] Sung the people learned to treat their tools like swords, and production like battles; sunburnt

by the warm sunshine, the people turned into fighters tempered in the flames and steeled in the struggles, fighters braving all difficulties. While firmly strengthening the rear, both politically and economically, at the same time he concentrated great efforts into the consolidation of the front. He took steps to heighten the role of Party organizations and political organs within the army, the role of the battle commanders, and kindled the fires of the Model Company Creating Movement. He paid deep attention to the continual improvement of the technical equipment of the People’s Army. Most of the combat materiel was domestically produced. All this was in itself a victory for the excellent wartime economic policy of Comrade Kim II Sung. In addition, he introduced an aircraft-hunting groups movement and snipers movement, both — startling the world and flabbergasting the enemy. Snipers boldly lay in ambush all along the enemy positions 3876

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and picked off officers and men of the enemy in great numbers with ordinary rifles. The number of enemy officers and men who fell victim to the snipers of the People’s Army from March through mid-December 1952, totalled 10,727. Because of the strong firepower of the People’s Army and the vigilant activities of the snipers, the enemy dared not appear in the open but

were forced to stay in the depths of their positions. The aircraft-hunting groups also carried on their vigorous activities, hunting enemy planes day and night, moving at will to shoot them down, or luring them with sham targets like the anti-Japanese guerrillas who had smashed the Japanese forces and police as they liked. Enemy planes destroyed by the aircraft-hunting groups in 1952 alone, totalled about 1,219. It was an amazing discovery to the people that a sniping rifle in the hands of a brave soldier can account for enemy planes almost at will. Great indeed was their Leader, and what heroes the army!

As the firepower of the artillery of the People’s Army and the activities of its pursuit planes were strengthened, in association with the activities of these aircraft-hunting groups, the aerial bandits of the U.S. imperialists were compelled to reduce their flying to a smaller range and change from day to night

flying, from low-altitude to high-altitude flights and from solo flying to formations. Comrade Kim I] Sung led the People’s Army to catch the enemy by surprise attack and throw them into confusion, to smash enemy tanks the moment they appeared by developing the storming-party movement and the tank-hunting groups movement. Under his guidance, the People’s Army moved into mobile gun activities, smashing the invading enemy forces and their equipment with mobility. It was these bold and novel tactics created by Comrade Kim I] Sung that struck the enemy with horror, causing enormous losses. 377

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In every way, conditions improved and the situation was good There could be no doubt that victory was realistically in store for Comrade Kim I] Sung and the Korean people, who now had everything needed, such as the consolidated rear, prepared tunnel positions and a People’s Army which had grown and become stronger both qualitatively and quantitatively, militarily and technically This did not prevent the U.S. imperialists from running hog-wild of course. Outwardly they still seemed to have considerable strength. But the thoughts of Comrade Kim I] Sung were on the day of victory, when the sound of guns would stop, and tanks stop raising the dust. Burning nights and the barrage of guns, smoke rising over the glow of the fierce battles, burnt down villages. and cities reduced to rubble; none of this could check his aspirations. On the contrary, all served only to add fierceness and a romantic colouring to his far-seeing dreams of the future. Even as he sent arms and divisions to the front, when new orders were issued to the Front Command, while he stood in

front of the operational map and while on his way to visit the people at dawn, his mind

was

on

the future, on construction

and prosperity. When the Far East Command of the U.S. imperialists and all their ruling circles buried their heads in their hands as they pored over operational maps, Comrade Kim I] Sung calmly surveyed the ordinary map of the future. Can he create vast farms on the unexplored plateaux of the north? Can he not reclaim the tidelands from the West Sea? Where is a great metallurgical base to be built and a base for light industries? How and where will the city apartments and countryside housing be built? These are the questions he thought over time and again as he looked far into the future. This story comes from early 1951. An expert in architecture had returned to Pyongyang, volunteering for the front even while studying abroad. 378

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Unexpectedly called by the Leader, he visited the Supreme Headquarters to meet the Leader. Seeing the Leader healthy and vivid, the architect choked with tears, and was at a loss to

express the welling-up of joy in his heart. Reminding him of the heavy responsibility resting on technicians for city construction, Comrade Kim I] Sung said to him. “Now, the day is not far off when we will win the victory. Then we must restore destroyed cities, mustn’t we? We will build cities more magnificent and more beautiful than ever, and demonstrate the spirit of the Korean people in rehabilitation and construction.”

These words were entirely unexpected by the young expert who longed to be at the front While the whole country was waging a life-or-death struggle in the flames of war he thought of beautiful cities!) The young architect could not repress his great pleasure. At this moment there was a call from the front. The Leader lifted the telephone receiver and listened to the report. He issued many new orders in a strong voice filled with the confidence of victory, looking out at the southern sky as if he was looking at the very front line taking radical change through the smoke of guns.

Hanging up the receiver, he spread a large sheet ot white paper on the desk, to discuss a plan to rehabilitate Pyongyang City first, and proceeded to draw a complex outline for the rebuilding of Pyongyang. The buzzing of planes and the boom of anti-aircraft guns could be heard in the distance, telling of cities reduced to ashes and the fierce flames of war. But he went on talking and clearly marking the positions of streets and important installations of the new Pyongyang on the paper. It was not just simply a plan. Already his eyes saw the splendid, the magnificent streets extending one beyond the other, clearing up the ashes, the 379

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beautiful parks where children frolicked and cultural institutions of marble and granite stood. Pyongyang, the socialist capital, vibrant with life full of happiness and passion—the city, the strong and beautiful face, the flower of Korea! The heart of the young architect burned with emotion just to think of it. How grand, optimistic the ideas of the Leader are! Overwhelmed, the young architect was moved by the progressive spirit that knew no restrictions under any circumstances, opening from afar the door to the future. With extraordinary insight he looked into the future, where the Leader saw only the azure sky and the shining sun beyond the dark clouds where

the lightning flashed and the thunder roared; he could scarcely hold back his welling tears. From that very day, following the plans of the Leader, the designers drew up the blueprints for the reconstruction of Pyongyang, and followed this with designs for the construction of provincial centres. This was stirring news that boundlessly encouraged both the warriors at the front and the people in the rear. And the great blueprint prepared by the Leader during the fires of war did not end as a plan. He went to the people with the preparations tor postwar reconstruction, meeting them in factories, in the countryside and wherever he went, preparing the cornerstones of rehabilitation and construction one by one. While visiting the various parts of North Pyungan Province in the early summer of 1952, he dropped in at the Rakwon Machine Factory. The workers had built again the cupola furnace destroyed by bombing and were drawing out molten iron for the making of ploughs and iron pots. He took part in a meeting of the Party cell in the casting 3880

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Kim I] Sung guiding a general meeting of the cell of the casting shop of the Rakwon Machine Factory

shop that evening without notice. Finding their Leader sitting on a chair in the back row during the meeting, the Party members were at a loss what to do. They had not dreamed that the Leader, the Commander of the complex affairs of State and of the hard-fought war, would attend a small shop Party cell meeting. As that day the enemy had indiscriminately bombed the district of Sineuijoo, the workers were all the more surprised.

Having sat back all along and heard the discussions of the Party members the Leader now came forward, saying “AsI participated in the meeting, I must express my opinion as a Party member.” He first referred to the cell meeting and the livelihood of the workers, and then changed the subject to postwar rehabilitation and reconstruction. “At the time when we had been able to live a worthy life, 381

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built up on our own after the liberation, the U.S. imperialists ignited the war. As soon as we have overthrown the U.S. imperialist aggressors, we have to take up rehabilitation and construction. At that time we will have many things to do.” The Party members were even more excited at the word “postwar construction.” At this juncture a young woman worker stood up. She had lost her mother, her mother-in-law and even her sons and daughters in the bombing by enemy planes. She said in a calm voice. “Premier! When the war is ended, we country. So, don’t worry about that....We

factories destroyed by the fleeing Japanese mediately after the liberation.”

will rebuild our rehabilitated the

imperialists

im-

Comrade Kim I] Sung was deeply moved by this. These simple words of the woman worker bore something inspiring. In these words was the strong feeling of the wisdom and courage of the working class, which, even in youth, had realized its lofty mission, and was pulsating with the vigorous spirit of the forward march, its head held high in every difficulty. What can’t we do with the strength of such a working class and such a people? Everything is possible! This was the Leader’s conviction. Looking back upon this time, Comrade Kim II Sung said: “During the war I went to Rakwon and took part in a meeting of the Party cell of the casting shop of the Rakwon Machine Factory.... That night I could not sleep. I can’t forget what the comrade said. While coming back by train, I realized that what the comrade had said was indeed right, and I was more firmly convinced than ever that, as we had such a determined working class, our Party would certainly win.” Realizing the strength of the sturdy people who had faith to remove mountains when the war was ended, Comrade | Kim II] Sung gave himself even more vigorously to questions of 3882

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rehabilitation and construction. He maintained that in order not only to meet the needs of the front line, but also to turn Korea into an advanced industrial

country, the people would need to develop the machine industry by their own strength. So he took active steps to lay the foundations of a large-scale machine industry, even underground, in various districts, including Heuichun, beginning in 1951 In many districts machine factories were built. The great importance of this was not only in guaranteeing the production of war supplies, but also in providing for rapid rehabilitation and reconstruction of the economy when the war had ended. He paid special attention to the rehabilitation of the iron, coal and electrical industries. Bold plans were mapped out for agriculture. His plan for the remaking of nature included the establishment of a farm complex on the wide plateaux of 40,000 jungbo extending southeast of Mt. Baikdoo, and a wide expanse of land made by the reclamation of the tidelands of the West Sea. The plan he worked out was for a cooperative system of agriculture on a socialist pattern. While the Leader was leading the countryside of South Pyungan Province in 1952, he said that an experimental cooperative farm should be made up of about 30 farmers, and small-scale farms should gradually be developea into largescale ones. This proved to be a most valuable experience on which to base the full agricultural cooperativization after the war Comrade Kim II Sung took a special interest in the advance preparation of a large number of national cadres who would be needed in the building of socialism full scale in the future. While the U.S. imperialists escalated the war from the south, forcibly drafting all into military service, the Leader adopted the bold measure of recalling scholars and students of 383

KIM IL SUNG

yesterday now at the front, and putting them back to study at colleges, and selecting excellent fighting men to send abroad so that they could learn advanced science and techniques. In this way, even in the severest days of the war, Kim I] Sung University and many colleges, professional schools and high schools carried on in various places as usual. Enjoying the full benefits: of study, the students paid no fees, and Comrade Kim I] Sung himself, in spite of his busy days, often led the work of schools. Among other things, he gave on-the-spot guidance in April 1952 to Kim I] Sung University, which had been removed to Soonchun county, South Pyungan Province— that was of special importance. He set the direction of postwar rehabilitation and construction, a plan for industrialization, the pattern of rational utilization of natural resources and their investigation and research, as well as laying down other important policies for teachers and students, teaching them how to raise cadres in accordance with these policies. At the same time, he showed scholars the direction of scien-

tific research work and set them the mission of developing the national economy quickly after the war. This was done at a National Meeting of Scholars, held at the Moranbong Underground Theatre (a theatre built underground like a magnificent palace, where colourful performances of the arts were staged regularly), and he set them the task of founding an Academy of Sciences. So the Academy of Sciences took shape even while the fierce flames of war were raging. Scientists were evacuated to a safe zone so that no obstacle should stand in the way of scientific research, while research institutes and laboratories were built there and looked after under the instructions of Comrade Kim II Sung, having regard © to their equipment, experiments and living. How true it is, that the thinking and wide range of activities 384

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of the Leader were limitless! Even in telling about his thinking and activities—their logical order and rational concentration on clear aims, however complex and wide; their multi-ranging character in three dimensions; his extraordinary insight in the solving of today’s problems even while preparing for and developing the future; and, on top of this, his consistent, boundless love of the people and revolutionary originality—a lump rises to our throats. _Moreover, keeping in mind the fact that the thinking and activities of Comrade Kim I] Sung were developed not in peacetime but in wartime, and especially in the life-or-death struggle against U.S. imperialism, the most ferocious enemy, we see even more clearly his matchless greatness.

385

7. U.S. Imperialism Bites the Dust

THE WAR was entering its last stage. The U.S. imperialists faced world-historic humiliation. Bleeding and wounded from their successive defeats in the Korean War, and suffering sharpened contradictions within the whole imperialist camp, plus an economic crisis, they made last-ditch efforts to find an escape hole. Their only policy, they thought, was to reinforce their military strength and escalate the war. At the highest level of U.S. imperialism there was trouble. The blame was showered on Truman. Those who had paid tributes of praise to him now shifted the responsibility for the

ignominy suffered in the Korean War, on to Truman.

The good

ship “USS Truman” the U.S. imperialists had depended on so much was sinking in the storms of the Korean War. The U.S. monopoly capitalists put up Dwight D. Eisenhower as their new president in his stead. They supported their peerless ““War God” Eisenhower, who had fattened them so much

during the Second World War. It was true that of all the imperialists, Eisenhower was the most experienced in aggression. In a speech just before the election he had said. “Today our initiative, illusions and productive system are all gathered into the war and prospect of the war. Our economy is a war economy and our prosperity is a war prosperity.” 386

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He interfered directly in the Korean War. The tense situation compelled him to do so. This war-maniac flew to the Korean front in December 1952 with the U.S. Secretary of Defence, and admirals and generals under his command, and mapped out an adventurous plan for the escalation of the war, loudly claiming that “action is better than negotiations.” His aim was to carry out large-scale landing operations on the east and west coasts in early 1953, spread a strong second front linking Hanchun, Pyongyang and Wonsan. The design was to attack the main forces of the People’s Army from the rear, and

then surround

and attack

them in association with

the frontal attack. For this adventurous

operation, the leaders of the U.S. im-

perialist aggressor army hustled about South Korea and gathered together many warships, aircraft and large quantities of war equipment and materials, with a large force. In 1953 they built up the Syngman Rhee puppet army to 16 divisions and planned to draw in the mercenaries of Japan and Chiang Kai-shek. The situation became increasingly tense. The decisive struggle was only a matter of time. The judgement of Comrade Kim I] Sung on these moves

by the enemy was simple and clear.

He said that the enemy’s

new offensive was but an adventure and deathbed struggle of those doomed like the setting of the sun in the west. He formulated a policy not only to block the attack, but to crush the enemy and win a final victory, moving with the tide. He considered that some new measures were necessary to achieve this, while mobilizing all material and moral strength. First of all, he decided to strengthen the Party into a steellike and militant organization. There were still shortcomings within the Party, including 387

KIM IL SUNG

backwardness ment, evidences

in qualitative

compared

quantitative

develop-

of lack of Party spirit among some members,

and in particular, undisguised intrigues of factional cliques to destroy the unity and cohesion of the Party. These defects could not be connived at. As was made clear later, it was at this time that the wicked

Pak Hun Yung and Li Seung Yup spy clique again hatched a plot to overthrow the Party and the Government by armed revolt, in line with the “new offensive” of Eisenhower, and on the orders of the U.S. imperialists. To meet this situation, Comrade

Kim I] Sung determined

to further heighten the level of the organizational and ideological work of the Party, strengthen the Party spirit of the whole membership, and wage a vigorous struggle to put an end to factional and liberalistic actions. Some people thought that if a struggle was waged within the Party while the U.S. imperialist aggressors were desperately attacking the Korean people, there would be confusion. But

the Leader held that these ideology and shortsighted. He saw that it was when tasks were important that against all sorts of negative

people were both wrong in their the situation was complex and the a determined struggle launched aspects would be a decisive guar-

antee for success of the tasks, and at the same time strengthen the Party, the general staff of the revolution.

So Comrade Kim I] Sung moved ahead with the policy of waging an ideological struggle within the Party, and

resolutely rejected the disrupters. This policy was made clear at the Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party held in December 1952. Comrade Kim I] Sung made a historic report entitled “The » organizational and ideological strengthening of the Party—the basis of our victory.” 388

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He sharply criticized all negative phenomena that would weaken the Party organizationally and ideologically, and advanced many tasks that would build a steel-like Party, able to overcome any ordeal. He showed that it was an important task to temper the Party spirit of all members, and strengthen unity in ideology, will and action of the ranks of members, so that the Party could be more firmly consolidated both organizationally and ideologically. In his report, Comrade Kim II] Sung exposed and analysed the intrigues of factional elements, which were aiming to undermine the unity and cohesion of the Party, and exposed all manifestations of factionalism and called upon the entire Party to decisively struggle against it. He went on to say: “All our Party members should further heighten their revolutionary vigilance and Party spirit, strictly keep watch over the actions of these elements and see that the factional elements did not move one step within our Party. In particular, today, while we are waging this war against the U.S. imperialist armed invaders, we cannot allow these factional actions in the least. ...We must bear deeply in mind that if these factional elements are left alone, they will ultimately degrade themselves in enemy espionage.”

This policy of strengthening unity and cohesion within the Party ranks, and intensifying the struggle against factionalism in particular, played a major part in raising the fighting power of the Party. It is for this reason that one of the fundamental tasks in building a Marxist-Leninist Party is the strengthening of unity and cohesion of the Party, based on a unified Party ideology, and defending the purity of the Party ranks like the apple of one’s eye. The might of the Party of the working class lies in just this militant unity, which is the result of unity in 389

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ideology and the will of the Party ranks, with identity of action. A Marxist-Leninist Party is thus unable to firmly defend this steel-like ideological unity and organizational cohesion without ridding itself of factionalism and all kinds of opportunism from its ranks. Comrade Kim I! Sung said that the Party spirit ot all Party members should be tempered as steel in order to safeguard unity and cohesion, to be treasured as the apple ot the eye for the Party, and he attached very great importance to this. He said : “We must strengthen the Party spirit of all Party members and resolutely fight against liberalistic tendencies and the residues of tactionalism.” He maintained that only when the Party spirit of the members was tempered like steel, would the Party rid itself of all sorts of liberalistic tendencies, and then it would be able to wage an all-Party ideological struggle, exposing and eliminating the factionalists, and so consolidate the rapidly-increasing Party ranks qualitatively.

In this way, Comrade Kim II Sung scientifically analysed the Party situation and its organizational makeup at that time, and put forward to the members the task of tempering the Party spirit as an essential task, thus providing a complete answer to the problem of the essence of the Party spirit, its manifestation and ways to steel this Party spirit. “A strengthened Party spirit means that every member of the Workers’ Party is boundlessly taithful to the Party; is active in Party work; regards the interests of the revolution and the Party as his first life, and subordinates his individual interests to the former; defends the interests of the Party and its

principles at any time, at any place and in any circumstances; ' uncompromisingly fights against all anti-Party and counterrevolutionary ideas; actively participates in Party organizational 3890

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life and thoroughly observes Party Rules; and constantly strengthens ties between the Party and the masses.” This scientific definition of the Party spirit set out by Comrade Kim I] Sung is an outstanding contribution to the development of Marxist-Leninist theory on Party-building, and occupies a distinguished place in the norms of the life of a revolutionary party. He put this forth as the basic means of tempering the Party spirit; to strengthen Party organizational life, and for all Party members to thoroughly defend democratic centralism in the Party life. This, he submitted, is the means of upholding the weapons of criticism and self-criticism. The policies put forward as a means of tempering the Party spirit of Party members, as elaborated by him, formed a programmatic guideline for raising the Party spirit and strengthening the working-class spirit of all members. In this same report, Comrade Kim I] Sung put it forth as an essential issue, that dogmatism and formalism must be over-

come and ideological work be decisively improved and strengthened as well as organizational work, with the aim of strengthening the Party. He said: “By strengthening the ideological and educational work within the Party, we must make our Party members into Marxist-Leninists

who are the possessors of a clear revolution-

ary outlook, to rightly analyse all events from the class viewpoint and correctly put all revolutionary tasks into practice.” Comrade Kim Il Sung gave special care to showing the grave damage done to ideological work by dogmatism, formalism and national nihilism, and taught that the Party should build its ideological work on arming the Party members and ° the working people.with Marxist-Leninist revolutionary ideas, 391

KIM IL SUNG

especially strengthening the study of the realities of Korea. This historic report was a document that played a very important role in consolidating the Party organizationally and ideologically, and speeding up victory in the Fatherland Liberation War. Not only so, but the report proved to be of great historic importance in Party-building and for the future development of the revolution. As soon as the Plenum closed, all Party members took part in hot discussions on how to carry out the tasks set by the Leader. : This all-Party discussion was a continuation of the strong ideological struggle for the steeling of the Party spirit of all members and for the exposure and criticism of factionalism and liberalistic tendencies. As this programme was unfolded, an extremely astonishing fact came to light. All the crimes were brought to light, the crimes of the Pak Hun Yung and Li Seung Yup clique. As oldtime spies in the pay of U.S. imperialism, these had crept into the organs of the Party and the State, and there they had hatched their anti-state intrigues including espionage, murder and destruction. It was made clear that the Pak Hun Yung clique had degraded themselves as spies in the pay of U.S. imperialism since before liberation, and after liberation had viciously destroyed Party organizations and frustrated the labour movement and guerrilla struggle in South Korea on the orders of U.S. imperialism. Since their entry into the northern part, this clique had continued their anti-Party factional intrigues as the faithful running dogs of U.S. imperialism, and during the trying days of the war, had systematically offered Party, state and military secrets to the U.S. CIA. At the time of the “summer and autumn offensives” of the enemy which were smashed in 1951, the clique had tried to raise armed revolt, timed to the

enemy offensive. 3892

And when Eisenhower was plotting his “new

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offensive,” in line with this, they schemed to topple the Party and the State by means of armed revolt and sell the Korean people as colonial slaves to U.S. imperialism. To have successfully fought U.S. imperialism, the strongest enemy, while such wicked spy cliques were entrenched in the Party and carrying out their intrigues! How great is Comrade Kim II] Sung! It was a hopeless pipe dream from the outset, to think that a handful of the Pak Hun Yung clique could destroy the Workers’ Party of Korea led by our great Comrade Kim I] Sung. It was beyond all reason to think that the Pak Hun Yung stooges should be able to undermine the Party which had as its Leader Comrade Kim I] Sung, who had endured the revolutionary snowstorms for tens of years and was backed up by the sound communist core raised by him, all members of which were rallied around the Leader—the Party which became stronger with each passing day under his brilliant leadership. Doomed to failure, the Pak Hun Yung clique were executed in the fires of condemnation lit by all the Party and the entire people. This cancer which had taken deep root, was exterminated root and branch. It. was a decisive blow sustained by the U.S. imperialists, whose whole cause staggered.

Indeed, the insight of Comrade Kim II] Sung, his prescience and skill in the solution of such questions were far beyond the ordinary. In waging this struggle to strengthen the Party and overcome the harm done by these anti-Party and counterrevolutionary elements, Comrade Kim I] Sung mobilized the entire people and the People’s Army for the struggle to defeat the enemy offensive. He called a Conference of High-Ranking Officers of the People’s Army on December 24, 1952 and delivered an important speech entitled “Let’s strengthen the People’s Army.” 393

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In his speech Comrade Kim II Sung first defined that “War is, in its essence, the continuation of the politics of a certain class in the form of force,” and gave a brilliant exposition of the question of war as a whole. He taught that to understand the essential features of war and the various causes of its outbreak, it was necessary to make clearer the domestic and foreign policies followed by the ruling class on the eve of war, and the policy of unleashing war. He outlined the character of war as follows: “Tf the policy is imperialistic, it is inevitably attended by imperialistic war of aggression; if war is a struggle for national liberation, if it upholds the interests of the people and stands for the struggle of the people against national oppression, it is a war of national liberation.” Issuing from these characteristics of war, there are just and unjust wars; there is war waged by the advancing class. and war waged by the reactionary class, a war of liberation from class and national oppression and a war for intensifying oppression. He spoke about the role played by each respective war in the development of history. “An unjust, aggressive war waged by the reactionary, exploiting class impedes the progress of society. Reactionary, unjust wars are caused by the imperialist powers seeking a redivision of the world, looking for markets, for sources of raw materials and spheres for investments; such a war is waged by the imperialist bourgeoisie against the revolutionary movement of the toiling masses, against the peoples of colonial and dependent countries struggling for their national liberation and independence. The war for liberation of the people against imperialist aggressors is Just. A just war is for the forward movement of society. Such a war weakens or even totally destroys, in any shape or form, the reactionary class and its organizations that 394

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stand in the way of people’s progress, and it liberates the oppressed people from capitalist enslavement, emancipates the people in colonies from imperialist oppression and creates the essentials for the independent development of states and nations.,” Such was the theory on war put forward by Comrade Kim I] Sung. Applying this theory to the Korean War, he clearly showed the just character and the greatness of the Fatherland Liberation War, as carried on by the Korean people. Comrade Kim I] Sung went on, in his speech, to again clarify the history of the building of the Korean People’s Army, the source of its invincible might and its characteristic features, and gave a complete and detailed analysis of the factors operating permanently for victory in the war. He pointed out that stability in the rear was first of all the permanently-operating factors by which the outcome of the war would be decided. On these grounds he considered that stability in the rear was the foundation of the State’s military might and the fighting efficiency of its armed forces, and a decisive factor affecting all other permanently-operating influences. Imperialist states, faced with constant economic crises under the weight of a moribund social and political system, cannot have a stable rear from which to carry on an unjust, aggressive war against socialist countries. Therefore they are doomed to lose in the end. But socialist countries have a stable class-based rear by reason of the superiority of their system and the activities of their parties. And socialist countries enjoy the firm assistance of fraternal countries sharing the same destiny, and their class brothers of all the world, so their forces can operate from a stable rear. Comrade Kim II Sung considered that in this lay the permanently-operating advantages for victory in the just 395

KIM IL SUNG

war being waged by the Korean people and the People’s Army. Another permanently-operating main factor through which the victory in war would be decided, he maintained, was the lofty political and moral character of the People’s Army.

Comrade Kim II] Sung taught that the justness of the war, by its very character, the clear appreciation of the objectives for which they fought by all officers and men, their clear understanding of the vital connection of the people’s interests with the objectives in the war, the Party political work directed towards

this purpose, and the examples of self-sacrifice by each member of the Party, would enhance beyond all limits the political and moral character of the People’s Army and produce invincible heroism, indefatigable determination, and highest military efficiency in battle. Further, he pointed out that the political and moral character

of the People’s Army derived from the struggle to safeguard world peace. Comrade Kim II Sung’s definition of the role played by the political and ideological factors in the war in victory was a conclusion he drew from the analysis and summing up of the historic experience in the long-drawn-out anti-Japanese armed struggle, and the Fatherland Liberation War, and the practical experience of revolutionary wars of the world. In fact, no revolutionary army won victory because it was constantly superior in numbers and equipment. It was political and ideological superiority that won victory for revolutionary armies, even though, in many cases, backward in numbers and arms compared with the counterrevolutionaries. The Japanese imperialists said that the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army was nothing but “a drop in the ocean.’”’ But it was the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army that won the victory, and it was the Japanese imperialist aggressors who were defeated. In the same way, it was the U.S. imperialists who suffered a serious defeat 396

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in the Fatherland Liberation War. So, in his speech, Comrade Kim I] Sung attached very great

importance to raising the political and moral character of the People’s Army, and taught that the Party political and educational work must be strengthened. Regarding the quantity and quality of army divisions as a permanently-operating factor deciding the outcome of the war, he taught that the quantity and quality of divisions was a basis for strengthening the armed forces Comrade Kim II Sung said: “The superiority of our strength necessary to win victory is undeniable. The army is always victorious, provided that both in quantity and quality it is superior. A division comprising various arms of the service is a basic unit from the tactical point of view. Therefore a division is a component part of a combined unit carrying out its own tactical tasks. The quality of a division depends upon scientific organization of the army, proper fighting efficiency, construction and quality of arms, and a high level ot combat training of each man and officer. It can therefore be said that the quantity and quality of each division is the yardstick of the quantity and quality of the whole armed forces.” He pointed out that the People’s.Army had increased threefold in numbers in the course of the war, and that the firepower

of each infantry division had increased 160 per cent in 1952 over the preceding year, but that it would be strengthened still further. In regard to the quality of the army, Comrade Kim I] Sung attached great importance to the role of commanders along with firepower. He said that during the war, there had been a considerable

growth both in numbers and quality of the commanders of the People’s Army, and that this constituted a valuable asset in leading to victory. 397

KIM IL SUNG

In this historic speech he also made clear the direction of political work within the People’s Army, to meet the tense situation, and he set out the militant

policy to be followed

in

crushing the enemy offensive. Indeed, this historic speech entiled, “Let’s strengthen the People’s Army” became a struggle banner which gave the army and people confidence in victory, and led them to dedicate all their energies to the sacred war for final victory, a document which made a great contribution to the development and enrichment of both Marxist-Leninist war theory and military theory. On December 30, 1952 he once again issued instructions tor all officers and men of the People’s Army to make flawless preparations for battle and completely smash the enemy attacks all along the line of defence and even at sea, and not to yield an inch of the fatherland to the enemy. Following this, the Central Committee of the Party sent a call to all the members of the Party for them to rise in the struggle and annihilate the enemy. At the same time, Comrade Kim I] Sung visited the front units

in person to encourage them. Responding to the call of the Leader, both the tront and rear, united as one, prepared for a large-scale annihilation ope-

ration against the enemy. The troops vowed to kill their enemies and throw them back into the East and West Seas, if they dared try to land. And not only the troops but all the people lived, acted and fought tor victory. The old dug trenches, wielding their pickaxes, housewives rushed to carry bags ot earth on their backs. The revolution was in their hearts, with the result that, in a very short space of time, the front and coastal areas were turned into an impregnable fortress. In 1953 Eisenhower was ready to attempt a landing, placing. most of the U.S. Seventh Fleet along the east and west coasts, 398

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Comrade

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* 5h

I] Sung working

out an operation

plan

and desperately bombing both the front and rear of the People’s Army. A desperate attack was also made on the main front. But all the attacks of the enemy were turned, as though they dashed their heads against the cliffs. The People’s Army mercilessly hit the oncoming enemy, met them and crushed their positions. The People’s Army and the whole Korean people stood like a mountain towering in the sky. brandishing their sharpened arms On top of the mountain stood Comrade Kim I] Sung, the

iron-willed brilliant commander who held in his hands the general outcome of the war. looking down upon the panic-stricken U.S. imperialist aggressors with his calm and shining eyes. The U.S. imperialists quitted their new offensive for which they had made such preparations, with deep feelings of frustration after kicking up so much dust. In this way, even while strengthening the Party, Comrade

Kim I] Sung liquidated the internal enemy, the Pak Hun Yung 399

*

KIM IL SUNG

spy clique, and overwhelmingly defeated the US. imperialist aggressors. It was like cutting through the two with one stroke of the sword. It was a great victory for Comrade Kim I] Sung and the Korean people. It was a great victory that brought consternation to the large forces of the enemy, only by showing dignity without taking action. There are very few such cases in the history of war, to our knowledge, so overwhelming was the defeat suffered by the U.S. imperialists. The March 15, 1953 issue of the ““New York Times,” deploring the situation of the Korean War, commented: “There is no course we can take without risks and no course that promises certain success.” One Japanese expert in the study of the USA wrote: “Tt is an accepted opinion even in the US. press, that they recognize the vigorous mettle of the North Korean Army through their advance like raging billows at the beginning of the war, the fierce defence resistance in Seoul after the landing at Inchun, and the order of the strategic retreat, the stubbornness of their position battles against the two Van Fleet offensives

and their flawless posture in ground battles after the opening of the armistice talks.” The Korean people celebrated the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army with the emotions of victory, which had crushed the enemy’s “new offensive” before it had scarcely begun. On February 7, 1953 on the eve of the celebrations, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea issued a decree to the effect that it “confers the Title of Marshal of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Star of Marshal on Comrade Kim Il Sung, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, who rendered distinguished services in the anti-Japanese 400

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national liberation struggle and in founding, strengthening and developing the Korean People’s Army, the armed force of the Korean people, and who has performed brilliant feats in achieving shining war results, dealing a crushing blow on the enemy with his outstanding command in the just Fatherland Liberation War of the Korean people, in opposition to the U.S.British imperialist armed invaders and in defence of freedom and independence.” The entire people were overwhelmed with boundless happiness because they had Comrade Kim Il Sung as their Leader, and extending warmest congratulations to him, they showered him with good wishes for his long life and health. Having crushed the enemy, Comrade Kim II Sung struck a strong political blow at the U.S. imperialists through the ceasefire talks. Flurried at the front, the U.S. imperialists were forced to appear at the site of the armistice talks reluctantly, and received both political and moral condemnation because of their unjust demands concerning prisoners of war. Having come to this pass, the U.S. imperialists then began the most despicable and dirty atrocities. They frantically unleashed bacteriological warfare and showered napalms and bombs on hospitals, schools and kindergartens where innocent children were playing, and at the same time had no scruples about committing atrocities such as flooding paddy-fields and farmhouses by the bombing of reservoirs. The U.S. imperialists are the most vicious barbarians in the cloak of human beings. Comrade Kim II Sung was determined to drive U.S. imperialism over the precipice of decisive defeat. He issued the order for a strong counterattack on the enemy all along the front. The units of the People’s Army went into immediate action, and in three counteroffensives from mid-May, the units of the 401

KIM IL SUNG

People’s Army occupied all positions they aimed at, and dealt a terrible blow on the enemy. In particular, the attack on Height 351 demonstrated the outstanding leadership of Comrade Kim I! Sung and the might of the Korean People’s Army. The enemy had said: “Though we may surrender Seoul, we cannot yield Height 351,” and clamoured that this line was the “impregnable fortress” and the “line of no retreat.” But the People’s Army completely occupied this height in 17 minutes with the strength of one battalion under cover of the firepower of 130 guns. Under the hail of the guns of the People’s Army and its vigorous attack, the enemy was swept away as by a snowstorm, and swallowed by the sulphurous flames. These three counterattacks made by the units of the People’s Army from mid-May to late July, caused the enemy enormous losses and pushed them back from a wide area. In the third

coynterattack alone, the enemy lost more and men.

It scarcely

: Fighting men

402

needs

saying

than 78,000 officers

that the strength of the

x see of the People’s Army celebrating the victory in the war on a height .

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Korean People’s Army was overwhelming. Fear filled the aggressors. Overwhelmed by gunfire and suffering deep despair, the enemy was unable to carry on the war any longer. It had become all too clear that if the enemy

dared to continue, he would be doomed to total ruin. Even the most ferocious and stupid of the U.S. imperialists, painfully and keenly felt this situation, as if they themselves had been burnt by the fires of the war. The U.S. imperialists had mobilized to the Korean front huge armed forces more than two million strong, including onethird of their total ground forces, one-fifth of their air force, and the greater part of their Pacific Fleet, plus the troops of their 15 satellite countries and the South Korean puppet troops, plus large quantities of up-to-date combat equipment, and even resorted te the most barbarous methods and means of warfare. But it was only death and corpses they won. Whoever the aggressors might be, they could not but shudder as they looked

back upon the days of the Korean War. During the war, the U.S. imperialists lost total manpower of over 1,093,000 including more than 390,000 U.S. troops and large quantities of war equipment, including over 12,000 aircraft. This loss was nearly 2.3 times as much as that suffered in the four years of the Pacific War during the Second World War. The U/S. imperialists had boasted of their “invincibility,” but they sustained the most miserable and overwhelming defeat, the first time in their history, inflicted on them by great Comrade Kim I] Sung and the Korean people. The U.S. imperialists had triggered the Korean War with incomparable arrogance but were burnt to the flesh, bent at the waist with

their face buried in the Stars and Stripes. On July 27, 1953, the U.S. imperialists were taken to Panmunjom, where they bent their knees to the national flag of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and signed the armi403

KIM IL SUNG

stice agreement.

After signing the armistice agreement, Mark W. Clark, Commander-in-Chief of the “U.N. Forces,” confessed: “In carrying out the instructions of my Government, I

gained the unenviable distinction of being the first United States Army Commander in history to sing an Armistice without victory. Ifelt that everything was failure. I felt that my predecessors, General Douglas

MacArthur and General Matthew

Ridgway were of the same opinion.” Former Secretary of State Marshall confessed, ““The myth has blown away. We were not so strong a country as others

wanderofthe United Nation ghting Communist agere gned a truce that caseuaes snded ihe fighting on— nec pe~ninsnla.

Ade Mae aAA paraded ae a4 aa de did dad) aid ad .

Shown is a confession written by Mark W. Clark, ringleader of murderers, in which he acknowledged the appalling defeat of U.S. imperialism in the Korean War.

404

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had considered,” and Senator Joseph McCarthy said painfully “We suffered a serious defeat in Korea.” Korea won the victory. The whole world gave warm cheers to Korea. The name of Comrade Kim I] Sung and the word “Korea” became a synonym for victory and peace, heroism and glory, and echoed to the whole world. Korea felt like the centre of the world; the very axis of the earth seemed to have been moved to Korea. Solemn quiet came to the country after three yearsof booms of guns which had shaken the heaven and earth. In this quiet, the soldiers on the front and the people in the rear, all filled with boundless pride, cheered Comrade Kim I] Sung, the vitctorious organizer and glorious Leader. Amid the enthusiastic cheers of Korea and the world, on July 28 the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly issued a decree to the effect that it conferred the Title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the National Flag First Class and the Medal of the Golden Star on Marshal Kim I] Sung who had organized and led the Korean people and the People’s Army to a shining victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, with his outstanding strategy and tactics. On the same day, in a radio speech, Comrade Kim I] Sung analysed the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War and warmly congratulated the entire Korean people on their victory.

He said: “In its 5,000 years of history, our people have more than once waged severe and heroic struggles against foreign aggressors. But never before have they, as in the Fatherland Liberation War, scored such a brilliant victory over a powerful enemy, dealing it heavy blows with their unified strength,,nor have they ever had, as today, their international prestige so enhanced, 405

KIM IL SUNG

with support and sympathy being accorded them by the peoples of the whole world.” A gala mass meeting to celebrate the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War was held at noon that day in Pyongyang.

Comrade Kim I] Sung mounted the platform at 12:00 sharp, and addressed a speech of congratulations to the entire people amid the enthusiastic cheers of the mass of the people at the meeting, like human waves and human mountains. The solemn melody of the “national anthem’’ was played after the speech, the reverberations of the salute of guns shaking the heroic land, and the shout of “victory”

rose to the world,

with the moving tolling of the Pyongyang bell—all these added lustre to the victory celebrations, giving them sublime and more romantic colour. With overwhelming emotion and national pride the people flowed like waves in tront of Comrade Kim I] Sung, with a great demonstration of joy. The Leader stood waving his hands to the people, with a smile like the sun shining on the waves of dancing and flowing demonstrators,

all heroes

on

whose

faces, stained

with

the

smoke of guns, was inexpressible joy. It was the smile of all the country held dear through the days of fierce and bloody battles, the smile of victory.

406

8. The Victory of Outstanding Leadership and Great Military Strategy

KOREA had won the Fatherland Liberation War. It wasa victory for the revolutionary and Juche military strategy of Comrade Kim I! Sung over the bourgeois military strategy and expansionism of the U.S. imperialists, who had boasted of their “invincibility.” It was a victory of the revolutionary army and revolutionary people over the brigandish aggressor army and the imperialist

reactionary forces.

As this war was of unprecedented fierceness in the history of war, every victory was won by a death-defying bloody struggle, to which was mobilized all the people’s material and moral strength. The U.S. imperialists, the strongest army of imperialism, poured on to the Korean front the greater part of their armed forces and huge armed forces of their 15 satellite countries, plus the Syngman Rhee puppet troops, plus a war expenditure taking up a considerable part of the national budget, and with war materials of more than 73 million tons, and attacked the Korean people, resorting to the most barbaric and ferocious methods and means of warfare. The U.S. imperialists destroyed the cities and villages of Korea at random, and waged bacteriological warfare in an attempt to exterminate the Korean people, and used great quantities of napalm for burning and killing men, women and children. The generals of the U.S. imperialist 407

m

Ri

oy

KIM IL SWNG

aggressor army who had usurped the blue flag of the U.N. made frantic efforts to dye peace with blood and massacred the peopte more barbarously than the Hitlerites, claiming every time they opened their mouths, that they would “restore peace” with “police action.” But the U.S. imperialists could not bring the Korean people to their knees, nor could they conquer the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea. ° On

the contrary,

what

the whole

world confirmed in the

Korean War was the succession of ignominious defeats suffered by the U.S. imperialist aggressors and the world-historic victory of the Korean people. It was a marvellous fact that the enormity of the barbarity and the escalation of the war of the U.S. imperialists were in direct proportion to the ignominious defeat suffered by them; this is what was confirmed in the Korean War by the whole world. ' It was not only a military debacle for U.S. imperialism. All the world now labelled the U.S. imperialists as barbarians and beasts, and spat their hatred at them. To make matters worse, even the allies shook their fists at their master, threatened them

and turned their backs on them because of all sorts of discrimination practised by the U.S. imperialists with their monopolistic actions, their attempts to shift the responsibility for the serious ” defeat, and the destruction of the “myth” of the “invincibilityof

the U.S. imperialist aggressor army, and the sharpening of unbearable contradictions among them caused by the aggressive nature of the very war they fought. The U.S. imperialists suffered wounds all over the body by the military debacle, ground slowly more and more as the wheels

of history turned in their crushing defeat, political and moral. In sharp contrast to this, the Korean people were wrapped ° in the greatest glory, and became the object of warm love and yearning from the peoples of the world. 408

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BRILLIANT COMMANDER...

What is the significance of the victory of the Korean people in the Fatherland Liberation War? The effects, in truth, are immeasurable, but for convenience sake, we can reduce it to the following points. First, the Korean people and the People’s Army defended their glorious fatherland, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from the aggressors, and safeguarded the freedom and independence of the fatherland and the people’s democratic system under the leadership of the great Comrade Kim I] Sung. On this, Comrade Kim II] Sung said: “Fatherland—this is the dearest word to our people. We Korean people, throughout the heroic struggle, have safeguarded our most precious fatherland—the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—from the invasion of the imperialist armed aggressors.” This meant defending the revolutionary history of Korea with all its fruits, all the victories of the revolution not only of today but of the future and even the freedom and prosperity of generations to come. Second, the position and prestige of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were raised high in the political arena of the world. Korea, a noble sovereign state, was recognized as a strong fortress of world peace and the peace of Asia in particular; the Korean people became the “heroic people” and the “ardent peace champions” to be praised for ever in the memory of the peoples of the world; and the Workers’ Party of Korea, the most revolutionary and militant Party, was called the honourable ‘“‘shock brigade” of the world revolutionary movement and the working-class movement. Third, through the Fatherland Liberation War the people’s democratic system was further consolidated and developed in the northern half of the Republic, and the political and ideological unity of the people was greatly strengthened. Moreover, 409

KIM IL SUNG

the people, the Party, the army, the power organs, the social organizations and their workers were steeled even further, and built up their rich experience to guide them on their resolute: forward march under whatever difficult circumstances. Fourth, the Korean people and the army greatly encouraged the forward movement of progressive mankind fighting for peace, democracy, freedom and independence, by crushing U. S. imperialism, the strong enemy, and exposing its vulnerability and bestiality. Only by this one lesson, that U.S. imperialism can be crushed successfully and must be surely smashed, the Korean War was of great world-historic significance. Fifth, the Korean people and army defended the eastern outpost of the socialist camp with firm credit, frustrated the determined adventure of the U.S.imperialists who tried to throw the world directly into the flames of a Third World War, and safeguarded the safety of mankind. Concerning this, Comrade Kim II] Sung said: “We regard it as a source of pride to have greatly contributed to the holding in check of a Third World War, by valiantly blocking the invasion of the U.S. imperialist aggressors. By our firm determination the United States of America was prevented from converting all Korea into a strategic military base for an attack on the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union.” This great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, which is of such great importance, was able to be won because the Workers’ Party of Korea, the general staff of the revolution, the

tempered organizer and leader, led the Korean people. But if our great Comrade Kim I] Sung had not led the Workers’ Party of Korea, it would not have been possible to expect such a victory. Indeed, Comrade Kim I] Sung, as Chairman.of the Central Committee of the Party, as Premier of the Cabinet, as Chair410

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BRILLIANT

COMMANDER...

man of the Military Committee and as Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, carried all the heavy burdens on his own shoulders, and led the Korean people and the People’s Army to victory with his outstanding leadership and _ brilliant military strategy. Because of defeating U.S. imperialism under his distinguished guidance

and military strategy, Comrade Kim II Sung enjoys

the boundless respect and praise of the entire Korean

people,

and has become the great Leader of the anti-imperialist and antiUSS. struggle and the defender of progress and justice, looked up to by all progress- and justice-loving mankind. Truth to tell, both the course and the results of the Korean War showed with deep feeling the creative art of leadership and strategy and tactics of Juche, displayed by Comrade Kim I] Sung, and proved eloquently that the Korean people

under his leadership are able to find their way through all hardships and storms. By contrast, it showed clearly too, that imperialist politics and strategy and tactics are as corrupt and incompetent as they are reactionary and anti-mankind, and that they are on the deathbed struggle of those destined to the twilight. Over and over again, while they have been at war, the

bosses of bourgeois countries have more ruthlessly oppressed and exploited their people, hell-bent on following their military ambitions. The ringleaders of U.S. imperialism did the same during the Korean War. They had only the superiority of numbers, techniques and barbarity to rely on and wield.

But Comrade Kim II Sung made the war not only a military enterprise, but a political and revolutionary struggle. He prized the hearts and ideologies of the people, who held their weapons in their hands, far above the arms of war, convinced that only

weapons held in the hands of fighters burning with the ardent aspirations for a great cause could become the means of victory. tale

KIM IL SUNG

From this thesis, he consistently maintained his original stand that the military and technical superiority of the aggressors could be crushed with the political and ideological superiority of the Korean people and the People’s Army. So he concentrated such great efforts on the strengthening of the Party, and educating and tempering the army and the people politically and ideologically as the war became fiercer and more protracted. To have strengthened the Party into a stronger mass political party even in the days when the whole country was envelopéd in the flames of war, meant building the Party, the army and

the people into a steel-like revolutionary force of high temper. The result was that as the war became more protracted, the U.S. imperialists, who had almost unlimited capital and means of war, became impotent and floundering. But on the contrary, Korea, a small country, with constantly growing material and moral potential, was able to look down on the aggressors and bring them to their knees at last. This astonishing truth proves eloquently the political skill and leadership of Comrade Kim I] Sung, the art of a great revolution, filled with creativity and innovation.

Comrade Kim I] Sung made the people and the People’s Army into one great collective of ardent revolutionary fighters based on Juche, with the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. He educated the People’s Army in the lofty spirit and ardent socialist patriotism designed to defend the Party and the

fatherland against the invasion of the enemy and safeguard the socialist gains, and educated and encouraged everyone to fight with the same courage as his anti-Japanese guerrillas. It was through this means that the officers and men of the People’s Army displayed before the world their heroism, courage, stubbornness and happiness for their fatherland, just like the: anti-Japanese guerrillas. The warm hearts of the officers and men of the People’s Army, who had arisen like a phoenix from lees

IRON-WILLED

BRILLIANT COMMANDER...

the fires of the Rakdong River, through the arduous strategic retreat, in the strenuous battles through the enemy lines, and on the burning heights of the fatherland, were inseparably linked to the Leader and embraced the whole country. What a striking contrast this formed to the bestiality, plunder, adventurism, despair and horror of the U.S. imperialist aggressors. It was this that constituted one of the chief factors driving the U.S. imperialists to one defeat after another. Comrade Kim I] Sung led the People’s Army, which he had built up into ardent revolutionary fighters by his genius for strategy and tactics based on complete Juche, to overwhelming victory in each battle and in the war itself. The whole of the Fatherland Liberation War followed the course to the crushing of the U.S. imperialist aggressors, constantly using new strategy and tactics, in the same way as he had freely smashed the large forces of the Japanese imperialists, using widely diverse strategies and tactics, moving with preternatural speed. He developed and. enriched his strategy to meet the needs of modern warfare, suitable to the geographical features of Korea, using innumerable types of tactics, such as the surprise attack, the lure battle, ambush, attacks on cities, night battles, direct encounters, defensive battles and counter-encirclement battles; he used

mobile tactics to crush numerically and technically superior torces, holding ideological superiority and tactical supremacy over the enemy, making use of the enemy’s weak points and even creating weak points, but always taking the offensive, preserving his army strength to the maximum and wiping out numbers of the enemy. The forms of battle and mobile tactics were worked out by him in the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle.His . capacity to correctly judge the changing military situation in good time, and make clear the tangible strategic and tactical policies, with the kinds of battle and methods suitable, personal413

KIM IL SUNG

ly commanding the main difficult battles which points to turn the course of the war as a whole, very van, meant he could strike the mortal blow During the course of the war, he evolved strategies and tactics, throwing the enemy

formed crisis standing in the on the enemy. many brilliant

into consternation

and panic. The immediate and full-scale counterattack against a surprise attack by the enemy, the formation of a second front and large-scale encircling operations of the main front in cooperation with the second front, the complete position battle of large armed forces from the base of the fortified tunnel system, the aircraft-hunting groups movement and the activities of snipers to overcome the air supremacy of the enemy and so on, have never been so used in the history of war before. These were Comrade Kim I] Sung’s own outstanding strategy and tactics, reflecting the objective needs of the Korean War in a concentric way. They have therefore made a great contribution to the development of Marxist-Leninist military science. Further, the correct definition of the direction of the main attack, the organic cooperation of various arms of the service, the intensive use of firepower of the artillery in the mountain battles, the

organization of powerful coastal defences, the practical use of the storming party and mobile guns, the guarantee of the unity of front and rear, the organization and ensuring of the unity of the military and the people, and the unity of officers and men and so on—all these points of strategy and tactics and policies created and utilized by him during the war are too numerous to go into in detail. These strategy and tactics and policies created by him were all the more powerful because they were combined with the revolutionary spirit of self-relianceand mass heroism of the Korean people, together with the People’s Army, educated by the. Workers’ Party of Korea under his leadership. ; It was by his outstanding military strategy that Comrade

414

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Kim I] Sung led the People’s Army to launch an immediate and full-scale counterattack against the surprise attack of the enemy in the first stage of the war, liberating over 90 per cent of the territory and population of Soutn Korea within two months. During the strategic retreat he held back the main force of the enemy, formed a second front in the rear of the enemy and crushed the enemy from the front and the rear, driving them back to the south of Seoul in one stroke. When the enemy with increased numbers tried to attack by combining the main front with landings on the east and west coasts, he drove the enemy into decisive defeat with the position battle, relying upon the permanent fortress. Not only so, even while wiping out large forces of the enemy on the front, he dealt an irretrievable political blow on the U.S. imperialist aggressors in the cease-fire talks. He actively took counteraction by strong unity of the anti-imperialist forces of the whole world, including the socialist camp, against the intrigues of the U.S. imperialists to recruit more and more armed forces of their satellite countries. In truth, the historic victory of the Korean people in the Fatherland Liberation War was a victory of the great political leadership and brilliant military art of Comrade Kim I] Sung, and a victory for his Juche ideas. This historic triumph clearly showed that no force can conquer a people who firmly take their destinies in their own hands and rise for the freedom, independence and progress of their fatherland, under the guidance of an outstanding leader and a Marxist-Leninist Party. It also proved that the decisive factor in victory lies not in the superiority of weapons or techniques but in the strength of masses of the people, deeply convinced of the justice of their cause and firmly united as one. The U.S. imperialists were defeated. By challenging Comrade Kim II] Sung and the Korean people they sustained an irreparable crushing defeat for the first time in their long history 415

KIM IL SUNG

of aggressive war, boasting as they did of “victory.” The U.S. imperialists had toppled the governments of many countries, they had massacred people and made them slaves, the U.S. imperialists had rushed along the road of destruction and plunder, sucking the blood and fattening on the sufferings of thousands of millions of people—these U.S. imperialists were now struck as by a bolt of lightning in Korea, and now had fallen. The flapping Stars and Stripes was used to bandage their unhealed wounds. In their sky the evening twilight fell, and the “highway” which had boasted of eternity, suddenly changed downhill. The whole world was astonished,and marvelled and shouted

for joy at the great victory of the Korean people.

Looking up

to Comrade Kim I] Sung, the peoples of the world derived new strength, the people who had been shackled with the fetters of imperialism rose, with the banner of anti-imperialism. People who had been filled with erroneous illusions about U.S. imperialism clearly saw its aggressive and predatory nature, and

people who had thought that only big countries could fight U. S. imperialism, were convinced now that even small countries could fight and defeat U.S. imperialism. Now it became a fact that wherever the U.S. imperialists stretched out their tentacles of aggression, revolutionary peoples waged strong anti-imperialist struggles, and the struggle to defeat the armed aggressors with the people’s arms developed into a general trend throughout the world. Today the revolutionaries and peoples of the world call to mind with boundless pride the following words of Comrade Kim I] Sung: “In the Korean War, the U.S. imperialists suffered a miser-

able military defeat for the first time in the history of the United States, and this meant the beginning of a downhill turn for U.S. imperialism. With the serious wounds received in this 416

IRON-WILLED

BIRLLIANT

COMMANDER...

war yet unhealed, the U.S. imperialists are now incessantly running the gauntlet of the revolutionary peoples of the world, and now they are sinking ever deeper into the morass.” The defeated U.S. imperialists continue to squat in South Korea, sharpening their tusks. But the heroic Korean people under the leadership of Comrade Kim I] Sung, the ever-victorious iron-willed brilliant commander, will not let them live on. It is complete defeat that is waiting for U.S. imperialism in Korea.

417

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CHAPTER 5

EVERY THING BOR POSTWAK REHABILITATION AND DEVELOPMENT. OF Sirk: NATIONAL ECONOMY

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1. The Original Line of Laying the Foundations of Socialism

PEACE came to the land once covered with smoke of war. But in the minds of the people, victorious in the war, were the lingering memories of the bombing and the cries of anger of those days. The victory and the armistice won with blood was most precious. This was the deep feeling of their hearts. But the armistice had not brought complete peace, and deviations had to be faced. Comrade Kim II] Sung, anticipating problems concerning the cease-fire, quickly made his revolutionary stand and attitude clear on these questions. He warned that it would be wrong for economic construction not to be undertaken, thinking that the war might break out again, although it was true that the armistice did not mean lasting peace. It was equally wrong to be indolent, lax and self-satisfied, thinking that all threats of war had been ended and complete peace was assured He taught that the earnest efforts of the war years should not be slackened, but all possible be done to firmly consolidate the revolutionary democratic base in the northern half of the Republic. This was the most revolutionary and the only correct stand on the question of how to approach the armistice and, therefore, what to do. He considered that golden opportunities offered by the armistice should be fully used to promote the socialist revolution and socialist construction at full speed, in order to provide a firm 421

KIM IL SUNG

guarantee for consolidating peace and completing the historic cause of the unification of the nation. There was no time for Comrade Kim II Sung to taste the joys of victory nor to remain quiet and relaxed, although he had fought for over three years, with the destiny of the country on his shoulders. He turned his eyes from place to place over the soil of the fatherland, severely ravaged by fire and sword. The wounds were deep and damage indescribably widespread. Towns and villages had been destroyed or burned down, and the magpies had built their nests on the chimneys of ruined factories.

Some 8,700 factories and many other enterprises and

cultural institutes had been completely demolished by the bombing. Most serious was the damage to heavy industry including power, fuel, metal, chemical and other sections.

Light industry,

the rural economy, handicrafts and private trade and industry were destroyed beyond description, and the people found living itself exceedingly difficult. The open boast of the U.S. imperialist aggressors was that “Korea will not be able to stand up again for 100 years.” It was certainly an historic moment, grave and difficult. The people launched themselves into the tasks of reconstruction and a new life. But, with what, where

and how to begin?

They were quite at a loss; there were no installations and no equipment with which to turn out even a brick, a handful of cement or a piece of iron. But these difficulties had to be overcome by all means. This was the question on which the destiny of the revolution and the nation depended, the question on which the whole future development of the country hinged. The people were unanimous in their faith in their Leader. They were convinced that none but he could set the revolutionary lines and undertake the decisive measures to rebuild | without fail the devastated national economy and restore the people’s living. They were right. Even at that moment he was

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not discouraged. He was firm in the conviction that a new life could begin as long as there were the people, territory, the Party and the people’s power. Comrade Kim II Sung, who never sets out on any work without thorough planning, had already worked out the vast blueprint to be made public in the postwar days, even before the armistice was assured. He considered that the prime duty of the Korean revolution was still to overthrow the U.S. imperialist aggressive forces and its allies, the landlords, the comprador capitalists, the pro-Japanese and pro-U.S. groups, the national traitors in South Korea, to liberate the South Korean people from their imperialist and feudalistic fetters, and thereby achieve national unification and complete national independence. To fulfil this revolutionary duty, he held, first the revolutionary base of the northern half, strategic base of the Korean revolution, must be further strengthened politically, economically and militarily, and to this end overall socialist revolution and socialist construction should be stepped up. Later, Comrade Kim I] Sung said: “Basing its thinking on the inherent requirements of social and economic development in the northern part of the country and the fundamental tasks of the Korean revolution, our Party

had advanced, as early as the postwar period of rehabilitation, the general task of laying the foundations of socialism in the northern half of the Republic. This was to expand and reinforce the socialist economic sector by reorganizing small commodity and capitalist economies on socialist lines in all branches of the national economy and to restore and further develop the productive forces, thereby building solid foundations for an independent national economy, and rapidly improving the people’s living conditions.” It was pointed out by him, that the laying of the foundations of socialism means, in the relations of production, transforming 4283

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all sectors of the small commodity economy and the capitalist economy, into a socialist economy, and establishing the complete control of socialist relations in production, and with a clear view of productive forces, to lay the foundations for an independent economy. In other words, this meant not only eliminating the past century-old backwardness and the remnants of the old society in connection with the relations of production and productive forces, but building an advanced socialist society. This task of laying the foundations of socialism, a decisive stage in socialist construction, was a revolutionary task calling for a very high degree of revolutionary creative zeal and skilful strategic leadership. Moreover, to build the foundations of socialism in a land which had been a backward colonial, semifeudal society in the past and had been totally destroyed in the war—this amounted to hewing out a new untrodden path. Nevertheless, Comrade Kim I] Sung believed that in order to reconstruct the destroyed economy at maximum speed and build a firm revolutionary base, a decisive step forward must be made, above all, in laying the very foundations of socialism. In consolidating firmly this revolutionary base, the productive forces of industry and agriculture had to be quickly developed and foundations for an independent national economy be laid. Only by doing this could the economic strength of the country be increased, and in turn, on this the military capacity be reinforced and at the same time the people’s living rapidly improved. The need arose too, for this purpose, to transform along cooperative lines the rural private farming economy, a hindrance in the development of productive forces, and to remove urban capitalist elements.

While in command of the whole rapidly-changing front in the country during the war, he was already preparing for to-_ morrow, and drew up even amid the raging flames of battle such a detailed blueprint for turning the land then in ruins, into

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a glorious socialist power. Even in the days of the fighting, while seeing that underground factories were built, he worked on the plan of postwar construction. He also visited factories and plants far removed from their original status, and discussed face to face with the workers there on rehabilitation. He called scientists and designers and assigned them the task of drawing up blueprints on building magnificent cities and factories; and going out by night, under the very buzzing of enemy planes, he pondered over the means of agricultural cooperation; while planning outstanding strategy and tactics with his eyes fixed on a plan of operations, his mind was moving to large-scale nature-remaking projects which would mark the beginning of a new world. At night, while others slept, or were enjoying holidays, for the future prosperity of the country and happiness of the people, he spared no time for rest, but mapped out in person the plan for the postwar reconstruction and development of the national economy. So, on defeating the U.S. imperialists, immediately after the cease-fire, instead of taking a well-deserved rest from his fatigue, he first visited factories and villages to see the people, with plans worked out by him amid the guns of war. On the day immediately following the cease-fire, when the smoke of war still lingered, and tanks and cannons were still covered with the dust of battle, he visited the Kangnam Brick

Factory in South Pyungan Province, where he appealed to the workers to increase brick production for reconstruction. The next morning he visited the Pyongyang Textile Factory to ensure supplies of cloth as fast as possible. The factory was severely devastated. After listening to a report by an investigation group on damage to the textile factory, which estimated five years for reconstruction, he said: “Tf it takes five years to reconstruct a textile factory, then 425

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scores of years will be needed to completely rehabilitate the wardevastated land, will they not? IJ think it can be rebuilt in two months, not five years. By ordinary methods of construction it takes five years. But if you think of the factory reconstruction as a battle and attack it, you can get it completed within two months.”

His words that rehabilitation was a battle promised the miracles accomplished in Korea which startled the whole world. On July 29, three days after the armistice, Comrade Kim I] Sung went to the Hwanghai Iron Works, a big metallurgical base. At the news that the Leader had come, workers and people all ran out together, shouting cheers, coming from all directions of the compound which seemingly lay quiet and lonely in ruins and was overgrown with weeds. Mothers, too, hurriedly came out, carrying their injured children they had been caring for. They were all honoured fighters who had fought and emerged victorious from the flames like undying birds, each following the Leader. Their Leader’s face beamed with smiles and joy, and he returned the cheers of the workers.

Taking the hands of workers one by one, he said, in a tone full of affection:

“You have survived without doubt! You have done well in the war. I longed to see you, even during the war. Some of you have been wounded?” Tears welled up in the eyes of the workers. Comrade Kim I] Sung walked straight to the compound of the iron works, without wiping off sweat. No, there was no iron works. As far as his eyes could see there were only heartrending ruins. The iron works, destroyed by saturation bombing by the U.S. scoundrels over three years seemed to protest with all its evidence of ravages against the indescribable atrocities and barbarity of the enemy. Monstrous steel frames rusted red as blood, sharply twisted and splintered pipes, tangled wires lying in piles of scrap iron, 426

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a thick growth of weeds noisy with singing of birds—everything a scene to arouse the deepest anger. Followed by iron and steel workers, he pushed his way through the thickly-grown weeds into the works, littered with scraps of metal, leaving no space even to step. With a stern expression on his face, probably moved with deep anger, he could not speak. He was in deep thought, scratching ashes with an iron rod or tapping sliced steel pillars. He looked round the open-hearth, blister steel, thin plates, fire-proof materials, blast furnaces and other workshops, and then climbed up the hill behind the power-supply section. Again absorbed in deep thought, he looked down

at the devastated

compound for a while, and then spoke to the workers: “Comrades! We should not be discouraged. We have knocked out the Yankee devils and won victory, haven’t we? We will win the victory in the future, too. Everything is destroyed, but we have the wherewithal to construct it. We have the heroic people and not a few reserves for reconstruction. The Yankee devils were hell-bent on destroying all, but there still remain for us the foundations of heavy industry and there are inexhaustible gold, silver, copper, iron and so on

in our beautiful mountains and rivers.... If we make good use of all these, we will be able to rehabilitate with credit the national economy!” Repeatedly turning penetrating eyes from workers to the compound, he declared: “The rehabilitation of the national economy must begin with the restoration

of heavy industry,

and the restoration

of the

Hwanghai Iron Works, with also open-hearths. Then, we will be able to obtain the iron needed to reconstruct all the realms of the national economy.... There is no other way for rehabilitating the devastated national economy and turning our country into a rich and strong 427

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one. The development of heavy industry eventually is accompanied by the progress of light industry and agriculture. Then, the economic foundations of our country can be firmly consolidated and the people’s living improved rapidly. The steel and iron industry is the most important of the heavy industries. So, I’m calling on you to rapidly rebuild the Hwanghai Iron Works and turn out large quantities of iron....” His programmatic words deeply moved the workers who were at a loss what to do. Unable to repress his emotion, a worker stepped out before the Leader who was expressing his concern over workers’ housing. The worker pledged that they would build a more magnificent factory and make a better living for themselves. Seeing the firm determination of the reliable Korean working class in the convincing words of the worker, he said, his face beaming with joy: “That’s right. This is the very thing you should do. You’ve got to build a bigger open-hearth on the spot where there was a small one, demolished by the Yankee devils, and replace straw-

thatched huts with brick buildings to show the Yankee villains the real ability of Koreans in the rehabilitation work, too.” The fires kindled in the minds of the workers by him, raged throughout the land and aroused the whole country to the task of reconstruction. On August 3, Comrade Kim II Sung visited the Kangsun Steel Works, where he encouraged the workers and taught them the ways and means of reconstruction. Having grasped all pending problems and boundlessly encouraged the people during his one-week energetic on-the-spot guidance, Comrade Kim II Sung called the Sixth Plenum of the Party Central Committee on August 5. Party Central Committeemen and observers who gathered for the Plenum from many places were first of all surprised by azo

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Comrade Kim II Sung conducting on-the-spot guidance to the Kangsun Steel Works

a magnificent and beautiful large meeting place with some one thousand seats. They wondered how such a magnificent building had survived the bombing during the war. They were very surprised to learn that the building had been constructed within one week after the cease-fire. It was an unthinkable achievement in the ordinary sense. But it was a fact and a reality. It was the result of the meticulous organization of work and the scientific insight of Comrade Kim II] Sung that such a meeting place was set up in only a week. Already convinced of victory even in the days of the war, he was working on a plan for postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy, and at that time, had ordered

a meeting place to be built to present the blueprint. there. The prudent Leader saw to it that only walls were set up first, so as to escape serious damage by enemy bombing. He thought that if walls remained, several days would be enough to roof the building and complete its interior. 429

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He was right in his judgement. The walls stood ready at the time of armistice. He ordered the remaining work finished at lightning speed. Work on construction went on day and night, and the meeting place was ready on schedule as instructed by him. So it was an object of deep admiration for those present at the Plenum. Such an episode in the construction of the building stimulated much thought in the minds of the people. They did not think of the magnificent and beautiful meeting place as simply a building; it had become a symbol of the Leader’s outstanding leadership, and the epitome of all the miracles yet to be performed in the postwar days. When Comrade Kim I] Sung appeared on the platform of the meeting he was met with prolonged stormy applause and cheers. In the Plenum Comrade Kim II Sung gave an historic report entitled “Everything for the postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy.” Every word and every phrase in the report had been well thought over and carefully noted by him during the days of war. He made the revolutionary standpoint on the cease-fire and peace clear, the basic line and orientation of postwar rehabilita-

tion, the task of building the foundations of socialism, etc. He put forth the general tasks in laying the foundations of socialism, and made clear in a concrete way the direction of rehabilitation and development in all areas of the national economy, as well as the basic direction of immediate postwar rehabilitation. Pointing out that it was difficult to rebuild generally all branches of the national economy, which was completely destroyed in the war, at one and the same

time, he classified the

rehabilitation programme in three stages. The first stage would be preparation for overall reconstruction of the national economy covering from six months to one 430.

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year, when preparations and adjustments would be completed for the reconstruction of the ruined national economy as a whole. In the second stage, a Three-Year Plan would be carried out for rehabilitation and development, to enable the national economy to regain prewar levels in all its sectors.

In the third stage, a Five-Year Plan would be put into operation to lay the foundations for socialist industrialization. Referring to the basic line of postwar economic development to be put into practice without fail in each stage, he said: “In postwar economic construction we must follow the line of giving priority to the rehabilitation and development of heavy industry, while simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture. This alone will enable us to lay the economic foundations of our country and improve the people’s living standards in the shortest period of time.” He considered that it depended mainly upon the priority growth of heavy industry whether or not the severely damaged light industry and agriculture would be developed, and whether or not the people’s living could be stabilized. Only by giving priority to the development of heavy industry could the colonial one-sidedness of the national economy and its technical backwardness

be eliminated, and firm independent

foundations

of

the national economy, with its material and technical basis for socialism, be laid. Comrade Kim II Sung considered, however, that the devel-

opment of light industry and agriculture should not be delayed, either. Light industry and agriculture should not fail to be raised, in keeping with the development of heavy industry, in order to supply the raw materials of industry, completely eliminate their original backwardness and rapidly increase the production of foodstuffs and other daily necessities needed for speedily elevating the people’s living. It was a line unprecedented in history to give priority to the

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development of heavy industry while at the same time developing light industry and agriculture. No country in the world had ever put into practice a programme to develop heavy industry and light industry in parallel. With the economy so completely devastated by the war, such a line of construction was especially unimaginable. But special measures, different from in other countries, just had to

be undertaken by the Korean people who were called on to meet fully and speedily the various demands from all sectors in economic rehabilitation, the people’s living and national defence, and, at the same time, to build an independent national economy. They had to run ten or a hundred steps while others could go one step at a time. The Korean people were

not satisfied with or were denied such an easy road to development, as in other countries, first developing heavy industry for a certain period and then expanding light industry, or developing light industry first and obtaining funds to expand heavy industry as in the capitalist states. In other words, they were not in a position to take the easy way, wearing smart clothes. Comrade postwar

Kim

economic

Il Sung, in carrying construction, took

out this basic line of

shortcuts

to

the

fastest

building of the foundation for an independent economy, and to the speedy improvement of the people’s living standards. So, as a means of reinforcing the foundations of a self-supporting economy and simultaneously building the basis for the people’s living, he took the line of priority to the development of heavy industry, and closely linked with it the growth of light industry and agriculture, with the aim of quickly improving the people’s livelihood. There were both subjective and objective possibilities of successfully fulfilling the bold and original basic line of socialist economic construction put forward by Comrade

Kim

Il Sung,

though it was a very painstaking and difficult task. 432

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But above all, it became possible because of the revolutionary ideas and seasoned guidance of Comrade Kim II Sung, the great Leader of the 40 million Korean people, peerless patriot, national hero, ever-victorious, iron-willed brilliant commander.

With these revolutionary ideas and seasoned leadership of Comrade Kim II Sung, the Korean people succeeded in conquering all difficulties and ending bottlenecks, and successfully carried through the basic line of socialist economic construction proposed by him. Not only so. The Korean people had been steeled in the course of the war and armed with his revolutionary ideas, and had the indomitable revolutionary spirit and inexhaustible creative power of the working people rallied around the Party and the Leader. The people’s revolutionary spirit, the creative power, and fighting mood that feared no sacrifice for the great cause, their optimistic faith in victory: if only they were aroused and organized well, work on construction would go on actively throughout the country, and the rich resources that lay underground could be made available and used to the maximum for the economic construction programme. There were not only foundations already built to some degree for heavy industry, though damage was so serious, but there were rich natural resources necessary for its development; there were material and technical preparations made by him in anticipation, even during the war, and there was support and encouragement from the socialist countries. The basic line of socialist economic construction put forth by Comrade Kim II Sung shed light for the Party and the people on the road to development and prosperity, because it showed the solution to the problems as to where and how to begin construction. This was the urgent issue on which the destiny of socialist construction and the future development of the father433

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land hung, faced with the total war devastation. The basic line, in other words, is a great line which shows the way to carry out smoothly not only the immediate tasks for postwar rehabilitation, but also the distant tasks, by which it is possible to defend the fundamental interests of the Korean revolution, and establish a grand national policy on a long-range basis. The basic line then, was to give priority to the growth of heavy industry, while developing light industry and agriculture simultaneously. In this proposal Comrade Kim II] Sung presented the correct way to quickly improve the people’s living conditions that had been so destroyed, as the immediate

task, and at the

same time lay the foundations of an independent national economy aimed at the future prosperity of the country. This was a revolutionary line which, by correctly combining economic construction and defence buildup, could develop the economy in a short time, still firmly defending the gains of the revolution. Only with a powerful heavy industry and advanced light industry and rural economy can socialist construction be fully guaranteed and the buildup of modern defence capabilities be actively pushed ahead. Indeed, this line was the only correct one, taking into reasonable consideration the law-governed requirements and realizable possibilities of the economic development in our country, a creative line which applied the Marxist-Leninist theory of expanded reproduction to the specific conditions of our State, a revolutionary line representing his steadfast stand on rapidly establishing an independent national economy, based on the revolutionary spirit of self-sustenance, a great line that boundlessly encouraged the peoples aspiring after socialism and communism. The great vitality and universal correctness of the basic line | for postwar economic construction was tested and proved in practical life as the days went by.

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In carrying out the socialist revolution aimed at establishing the complete domination of the socialist relations of production, Comrade Kim II Sung explored an original shortcut and led the socialist revolution to an historic victory in the briefest space of time. Underlying this bold and original concept adopted by the Plenum, were the burning patriotism and revolutionary zeal of

Comrade Kim I] Sung, who mapped it out and set it forth. It was an enormous task, even to clean up the ruins and lift the economy to its prewar levels. But he went far beyond that in the plan to bring about a great overall innovative leap and drastically change the whole country in the quickest possible time. It would be a protracted historic task in any country, and normally take scores of years or a century for its fulfilment. If a peasant, having lost his thatched

house in a disaster,

tried to build a beautiful tile-roofed house, it would surprise every villager. The whole world looked on, astonished at the boldness of Comrade Kim I] Sung in expressing his determination to transform the ruined land, where only chimneys stood in overgrown industrial areas, into a strong socialist power with an independent national economy. Comrade Kim Il Sung, with his unbounded love for the country and the people, could no longer tolerate a continuation of Korean backwardness. Why should Korea remain an underdeveloped country? Is it impossible for a first-rate culture to flourish in Korea, a picturesque land, rich in natural resources? Why should not the people, who endured so many sufferings and fought so heroically, live in a country more developed and more advanced than others? The great Leader made up his mind to give the Korean people an advanced and powerful economy, able to withstand any storm, and a first-rate culture which would

be the envy of the world’s people. He also resolved to hand over to posterity a beautiful paradise, so beautiful as to defy 435

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description. With this determination he made public such daring and revolutionary line. The people saw in the teachings of their Leader a moving future image of a prosperous fatherland, and felt the ardent appeal for the great cause. The road to the future was clear-cut. Militant work on construction was started in every nook and corner of the country. Ruins were being removed forever; the day was drawing near when the world would see miracles on the land of Korea.

2. Vigorous Fight for Reconstruction

THE PEACETIME ECONOMIC SYSTEM replaced the wartime one. Loaded with machines ana equipment, workers and technicians who had moved for safety to remote areas, goods wagons and trucks hurried back to their home places, raising the dust. Discharged soldiers still in uniform rushed with an appointment

warrant

to construction

sites.

Leading centres for rehabilitation were established everywhere in the ruins, and barracks were quickly built in residential quarters. In response to the call of the Leader, workers, heroic People’s Armymen, students, young and old, men and women,

plunged into the struggle for reconstruction, in the same spirit as they had displayed in knocking down the U.S. imperialists in the war. All worked day and night. The whole land changed into a sparkling construction site.

Level the ground with full strength, On our ruined land scorched by the foe, Set up furnaces and cozy houses, Build our fatherland rich and strong.

Lively songs of reconstruction were heard everywhere. 437

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work in those postwar days was not always joyous with songs. Every work and every process was a battle against terrible odds. There was a shortage of materials, of funds, of manpower and of techniques. But the people, realizing that rehabilitation is just like a severe battle, unflinchingly faced and overcame all difficulties, instructed and encouraged by the Leader. Comrade Kim I] Sung marshalled the workers of the iron and steel industry including the Hwanghai Iron Works and Kangsun Steel Works. Iron was a keystone; it was the pillar and beam of reconstruction. There came demands for iron materials and production equipment from everywhere. No progress could be made without iron. Whether or not heavy industry in general developed, metallurgy in particular—this was the decisive problem for the tempo and success of rehabilitation work as a whole. So he visited the Hwanghai Iron Works as early as three days after the ceasefire, and the Kangsun

Steel Works

one

week

later, where

he

concentrated on grasping all their problems, and called on and inspired the workers there first in the struggle for reconstruction. The workers and builders of the Hwanghai Iron Works unanimously declared, responding to the teaching and appeal of their Leader : “We will make no mistakes if we do as instructed by the Premier. We will now build open hearths and blast furnaces and surely burn up the U.S. imperialists, the enemy, in their flames!” In the days of struggle, forgetting sleep and rest, they scavenged out bricks from the ruins, and cleared the twisted and split steel frames. They substituted wooden pillars for iron pillars, and under the roof thatched with grasses, not tiles, they cut metal and made steel frames. The ruins lost their gloom, and came alive like a living thing.

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At last, Open-Hearth No. | stood up from among the ruins,

boasting of its indomitable spirit and stout body. The U.S. imperialist aggressors bragged that the “Hwanghai Iron Works could not be rebuilt by the Koreans alone.” But, following the teachings of their Leader, the workers of the iron works built it in less than a year, Open-Hearth No. | , twice the size of that

destroyed by the Yankees. Meanwhile, Comrade Kim I] Sung looked closely to the reconstruction of the building-materials industry, and at railway transport, in order to solve the problem of building-materials and transport urgently needed in various domains. Under his solicitude, building-materials manufacturing rose out of the ruins; railway workers within a week had repaired damaged goods wagons and restored the state railways which had been so terribly mangled by repeated bombing, and quickly blood began to flow again in the arteries of the country. While putting emphasis on cardinal and prime industries for rehabilitation such as iron and steel, building-materials, traffic and transport, Comrade Kim I] Sung set about the reconstruction of the chemical fertilizer industry, which, among heavy industry sectors, plays a major role in agricultural development. Only by solving this question could agriculture catch up with heavy industry, given primary place. In October 1953 Comrade Kim II Sung inspected the industrial areas of Heungnam, Hamheung and Wonsan, and on October 17 came to the Heungnam Fertilizer Factory amid the cheers of the workers. First he looked around the converter

shop, the first process

in the production of ammonium sulphate fertilizer. After looking into some 40 converters burnt pitch-black, he inspected the electrolysing shop, scattered with hundreds of thousands of broken electrode plates. From there he went to the reconstruction site for a gas tank of 3,000 cubic metres. 439

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The morale of the workers was extremely high. Questioned by the Leader whether they could rebuild the gas tank by themselves, they unanimously answered, “yes.” They were a reliable group of workers. Very much satisfied, the Leader stressed to the workers that they should think boldly, do everything on their own strength, surmount all difficulties, and with-

out fail, build a fine factory at the place, making use of what was left from the war. Staying there for several days, he went over in detail the plan for the rebuilding of the factory. Pointing out that fertilizer had to be produced without fail within a few years, he said: “In August 1950 when the U.S. imperialists bombed this factory, I hear that farmers in the Hamjoo Plains, seeing the factory aflame for a week, shed tears, thinking farming would now be impossible. Farmers lay such great hopes, coupled with deep affection, on this factory.

We cannot advance the rural economy without fertilizer. Only when we develop the rural economy and produce large quantities of rice and other agricultural products, can the development of heavy and light industries be expected. ... The rapid reconstruction of this factory means the speedy development of the rural economy.” Even after his return from his on-the-spot guidance, during which he showed concrete ways and means for rehabilitation of the factory, he sent an inspection group comprising 200 experts of the Academy of Sciences, professors and students of Kim Chaik Polytechnic College and Hamheung Chemical Engineering College. He also sent equipment and materials. Encouraged by the teachings and solicitude of the Leader, the workers and technicians of the Heungnam Fertilizer Factory launched an inspiring struggle, and in less than two years had: rebuilt the factory whose rehabilitation would require, the U.S. imperialists boasted, 30 years. And on August 11, 1955 the first-

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stage operation was started, turning out gem-like ammonium sulphate fertilizer. After his work with the Heungnam Fertilizer Factory, Comrade Kim I] Sung continued his on-the-spot guidance to factories and plants, power stations, fishery offices and other enterprises in various districts. He visited the Wonhwa Cooperative Farm in Soonan county, South Pyungan Province, and many other villages, where he taught farmers a concrete way by which to restore the rural economy as quickly as possible, and to continuously increase grain output, and he led them to form cooperative farms and actively push ahead with the agricultural cooperative movement. As is clear from what we have said, that in order to carry out thoroughly the basic line of economic construction, giving priority to the growth of heavy industry, simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture, Comrade Kim Il Sung, while actively stepping up rehabilitation to full scale, gave scientific guidance in giving priority to the rebuilding of the major industrial sections ‘so that they in turn could give powerful, immediate helping and inspiring hands to all other sections. He also led the Party and state organs and organizations of working people to define the main link and order of priority in their work, and to do their utmost in the direction indicated by him. Regardless of rain and stormy winter nights, the Leader, always clad in simple clothes, visited a great number of factories and plants, power stations, fishery offices and villages to guide and encourage the people. He was found standing side by side with furnace workers in front of a roaring electric hearth pouring out flame, or he was in the centre of a lively construction site in an urban area. One day he would talk in the fields with farmers about a new life, and the next day, facing a biting wind on a pier, he would discuss with fishermen the development of

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fishery, looking through the boundless sea. While himself taking spare meals, he never ceased to be concerned over the people’s living. Infinitely inspired by the splendid guidance of the Leader, the people, with their belts tightened, marched on through all the difficulties and hardships. Days of creation and construction continued. Within only a few months after the armistice, the Kangsun Steel Works, Sungjin Steel Works, Seunghori Cement Factory, Chunnairi Cement Factory and many other factories, enterprises and mines were revived and had started operations. The preparatory stage tasks of rehabilitation were excellently fulfilled, so Comrade Kim II Sung lost no time in putting forth the Three-Year Plan, the second stage of rehabilitation. The major task envisaged in the Three-Year Plan for the postwar reconstruction and development of the national economy placed priority on the growth of heavy industry, while still rapidly rebuilding light industry and agriculture, with the aim of stabilizing and improving the standard of living, which had suffered so in the war. The task was not only to restore the war-ravaged national economy to its original state, but to eliminate its colonial unbalance, caused by the long-drawn Japanese imperialist rule, and to lay the basis for socialist industrialization of the country in the future. It was a difficult and arduous task. In order to carry this enormous task to success tor the postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy, the Leader gave highest priority to strengthening the Party; the difficult task could not be fulfilled without reinforcing Party ranks organizationally and ideologically, and strengthening its fighting capacity. While organizing the work of discussing again the documents . of the Fifth Plenum of the Party Central Committee throughout its Party organizations, to uproot all the poisonous aftereffects

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of the Pak Hun Yung spy clique and further strengthen the fighting capacity of the Party, the Leader saw to it that broad sections of the popular masses were closely rallied around it. After the war the makeup of the population was very complicated. Nonetheless, relations with people in all walks of life had to be correctly improved in order to carry out the enormous rehabilitation work, particularly the socialist transforma-

tion of the relations of production in city and country. To this end, the Leader called the Seventh

Plenum

of the

Party Central Committee in December 1953, where he analysed and criticized some errors committed in the united front movement, and took measures to improve the movement in keeping with the postwar situation. Thanks to the farsighted measures and outstanding leadership of Comrade Kim II] Sung, the ranks had been built to carry the postwar reconstruction to success.

Rehabilitation was vigorously boosted and the morale of the people rose high. Factionalists and dogmatists, however, found fault with the basic line for the postwar economic construction, saying that no country had ever undertaken such a policy, and that no reference to the effect was found in any Marxist-Leninist classics. Under the pretext that the living conditions of the people were difficult,

they insisted that aid from fraternal countries should be sought in the form of consumer goods, and added food for the people. Around that time, modern revisionists, arguing for the “‘international division of labour,” said that Korea should turn out

ores and other raw materials for the market, instead of making unnecessary efforts to develop the machine-building industry. The argument of. these elements was aimed entirely at shackling the northern half to foreign economy. As for aid from fraternal countries emphasized by factionalists and dogmatists, it would be used up by the Korean people in only a month, if

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squandered on consumer goods. In a nutshell, if a country relied only on “international ae sion of labour” or aid from fraternal countries, but did not build by itself an independent national economy, it would become entirely dependent on other countries. This argument could never be conceded. Comrade Kim II] Sung resolutely rejected all such schemes and the sophistry of these elements, and held fast to the Party’s basic line of economic construction. Even under the most difficult conditions of the postwar days, he firmly based himself on the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. He said: “We should regard self-reliance as primary, and support and encouragement from outside as secondary, not only in the revolutionary struggle but in construction. Only if we fight in such a spirit, will we be able to step up to the maximum the revolution and construction of our country and also contribute to the development of the international revolutionary movement.” This was his consistent stand. The masters of the Korean revolution are the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people under its leadership. Outsiders can never take the place of the Korean people in carrying through the Korean revolution, which can be developed only by the boundless enthusiasm of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people, overcoming the difficulties under the specific socio-economic conditions of Korea to effect changes of historic significance, and to drive the U.S. imperialists out at

any cost and unify the fatherland. Having established Juche and pushed ahead the revolution. in his protracted stubborn struggle against flunkeyists and greatpower chauvinists, Comrade Kim II Sung considered it the tradi-

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tional immutable principle to use one’s own brains on all problems at any time and at any place, and settle issues in a creative way with one’s own judgement, and he valued the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance as the life and soul of the revolution. Even in the postwar days, he flatly rejected all kinds of sophistry of all alien elements, and gave keen attention to building an independent national economy on the Korean people’s own strength. In his report to the Sixth Plenum of the Party Central Committee, he said: “The question is whether we tackle our job creditably as. masters of the State, and how well and how rapidly we transform all these possibilities into reality. First of all, we must have faith in our own strength—the strength of our Party, our Government and our people. With this inexhaustible strength we shall triumph in the struggle for the postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy just as we emerged victorious from the severe war against the enemy.” Comrade Kim [1] Sung devoted great attention to leading the Party and state organs to direct their eyes towards the industries,, and in particular, to raise the economic guidance levels of functionaries in the industrial and transport branches. It was natural that main efforts should be concentrated on the rural economy at the time of war, when industrial equipment had been destroyed and the great majority of the population had moved to the countryside. But, under new postwar conditions, attention and efforts had to be focussed on industry, the major section of the national economy. Besides, in order to successfully carry through rehabilitation when there was a serious shortage of funds, materials and workers, skilful guidance was essential if they were to make full use of every possibility and correctly organize and mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of the working people.

KIM IL SUNG

But during those days, not a few state economic organs and their leading personnel could not give effective and concrete guidance to the economic section, relying on papers only. No progress could be expected without correcting such formalistic and bureaucratic defects. In March 1954 Comrade Kim II Sung called the Plenum of the Party Central Committee. At the Plenum he pointed out that the functionaries of the economic guiding organs should rectify their armchair, bureaucratic style of work that considered it their task to sign orders, and establish a substantial and analytical work style. He set them the task of strengthening the system of responsibility for functionaries, systematically effecting checkups and enforcing order and discipline in work. Especially, he assigned functionaries of ministries, administrative bureaus and factory directors to the task of more deeply studying and understanding economic affairs. Moreover, he faced them with various tasks and measures—

the question of sending leading technicians to production sites, improving labour administration work to hold in check the moving and loss of manpower, actively mechanizing production processes, plus the question of Party organizations and members giving priority to political work in the industrial and transport branches and strengthening concrete leadership and supervision in their economic activities. In the course of putting into practice such teachings of the Leader, a great change was effected in the activities of the industrial and transport sections, and a higher degree of enthusiasm and creative initiative were displayed by the working people. In order to spur this even further, Comrade Kim I] Sung called meetings of respective industrial sections, and plunged the whole nation into the raging torrent of a vigorous, increased production emulation programme, for overfulfilment of the Three-Year Plan.

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Even while engaged in successive organizing activities in such a variety of ways, he again launched into his repeated onthe-spot guidance programmes. Wherever he went, in the cloud-capped mountain areas in the north or along the Military Demarcation Line, he inspired courage and wisdom in the people by his lively and amiable voice, and encouraged them with his peculiarly moving smile. When he paid his second visit to the Kangsun Steel Works on November 15, 1955, the Leader said to the steel fighters: “The Three-Year Plan for National Economy must be fulfilled ahead of schedule in order to rapidly reconstruct the destroyed economy and develop our country, a most backward one in the past, into a powerful industrial state. We’ve got to take three steps when others take one; we must go ten or a hundred steps when they take three... We have suffered before from severest maltreatment, contempt and poverty as colonial slaves of Japanese imperialism, and moreover, the national economy has been almost destroyed in the three-year war. To quickly rebuild the devastated economy and live better than others in the coming few years, we must work much more, and you comrades have to turn out and supply more steel and steel materials. Our rapid development depends on whether or not steel and steel materials can be put out in large quantities. In order to produce more steel, a movement should begin to equip hearths better and turn out 30 tons of steel per hearth.” Listening to the ardent appeal of the Leader, the workers unanimously pledged that they would live up to his trust in them:

“Leader, don’t worry about steel!”

The heroic workers of Kangsun had built up an electric hearth out of the ruins, and now turned out molten iron in only

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40 days. This time, too, they did not fail to keep their pledge. On-the-spot guidance was given to the industrial areas of Bookjoong, Rakwon,

Heuichun,

and, in May

1956,

again to

the Heungnam Fertilizer Factory. Scooping up in his hands the falling snow-white ammonium sulphate fertilizer at the dispatch section, he said to cadres of the factory: “This is as rice, and rice is socialism.”

Listening to the Leader and looking at a pile of fertilizer, the workers and leading functionaries pictured in their minds the villages where there would be a bumper crop. Satisfied with the factory so alive under construction, Comrade Kim II Sung continued: “Today I’m very satisfied with my visit here. When we came here in 1953, the factory was so terribly destroyed that we could not even step into the compound. But today the factory is in trim order, and fertilizer production has increased, too.... How wonderful it is today to see fertilizer flowing down like a waterfall. The factory is lively and you say you'll turn out over twice as much as envisaged in the Three-Year Plan. That’s very good. Farmers will be very glad to hear that, too.” His words, filled with fatherly solicitude and care, inspired the workers with great vigour and courage, as praise and advice given by an affectionate father to his sons and daughters when he calls on them in their new homes. Around this time, besides the industrial areas, he went to many villages, where he led the historic agricultural cooperative movement and irrigation works. In various housing construction sites he talked with the builders about new beautiful cities and cultured villages. He never forgot the people’s life. Always in his mind was only how the people would be able to live in tile-roofed houses, clothed in silk, eating rice and meat soup for their meals.

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So too, even before the war ended he had worked out in person a plan for construction of Pyongyang and local cities, and immediately after the armistice, as a first priority, he set out on the large-scale rebuilding of cities. He gave meticulous care to even the transplanting of a tree, iaying out a road and building a station. He extended his care to every nook and corner of the country—villages as well as cities, including Pyongyang, Hamheung, Chungjin, Wonsan, Kangge, Songrim, Kaesong, Nampo, etc. When visiting Kangge City in July 1955, looking around at the just completed Kangge Station, he pointed out that the signboard ““Kangge Station’ was too small. Finding saplings planted around the station, he said: “You’ve planted small trees though many good big trees are available... It'll be long before such young trees grow big enough for old people to enjoy the view. He ordered big trees planted there. What meticulous care and warm love for the people: are reflected in the words he offered after a mere glance at saplings! He looked after every one, regardless of sex and age, just like the sun giving its warmth and light and making all earthly creatures to grow.

He is the Leader who watches Korea

and the world, looks

far into the future while thinking of today, and leads the revolution with great boldness, yet was able to give meticulous care even to a tree during his visit to town and country.

Indeed, thanks to the guidance of the great Leader with unrivalled insight and outstanding sweep and the heroic struggle of the people boundlessly loyal to him, Korea was able to rise to its feet on the uins, step over difficulty after difficulty and take continued !eaps, startling the whole world. Following the Leader, the Korean people dashed forward without rest, and rose to the heights of the Three-Year Plan at a breath.

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The target was hit in two years and eight months in gross industrial output value planned in the Three-Year Plan, which by the end of 1956 had increased to 122 per cent of the planned figure. In 1956, gross industrial output value increased 2.8 times that of 1953, 1.8 times the 1949 figure and twice as much as was produced in 1944. : During the planned period, the basic line of economic construction was thoroughly carried out, with the result that the output of the means of production jumped four times, and the production of consumer goods 2.1 times. During the same period, over 280 large- and medium-sized enterprises including the Hwanghai Iron Works, the Kimchaik Iron Works, the Soopoong Power Station and the Pyongyang Textile Factory were rebuilt and expanded, and equipped with new techniques, while some 80 modern big- and medium-scale enterprises, the

Heuichun

Machine

Factory

included, were

newly built. Great success was scored in the rehabilitation and development of the rural economy, too. In 1956 grain output rose eight per cent, compared with the prewar level. Agricultural cooperatives aimed at reorganizing private farming on socialist lines, had already entered the stage of decisive victory. The people’s living conditions were remarkably improved, too. Late in 1956 the real wages of factory and office workers and real income of farmers rose higher than their prewar levels. The national economy was not merely rehabilitated; much of the colonial lop-sidedness of the industry was eliminated and the independent foundations of the national economy were mainly laid. In particular, the sector of socialist economy firmly held the dominant positions in all branches of the national economy. All these successes won by unstinted labour, served as the reliable material and technical means of the earliest laying of 450

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the foundations of socialism. Now the road ahead was broad and unbroken. The people, filled with fighting spirit continued to move fast along the road to new victories indicated by the Leader.

3. Among Builders of the Democratic Capital

IN THE POSTWAR REHABILITATION, primary attention was fixed on Pyongyang, the capital of the revolution, the political, economic and cultural centre of the country. Pyongyang was completely destroyed in the war. There was

not a house or a tree undamaged in this city, on which were showered more than 428,900 bombs by the U.S. imperialist aggressors. The city was razed to the ground, a desolate scene. Only the Moranbong Hill and the Daidong River were unchanged, ‘reminders of the old city and the former life.

But Pyongyang rose from the ruins. It was not only rebuilt, but replanned as a magnificent, beautiful city on a broader, wider base. Foreigners who came, with no experience of the terrible destruction, could scarcely express their admiration when they saw the rebuilt Pyongyang. This was natural. The Korean people rose united to rebuild this city, Pyongyang, into a beautiful city expressing the resourcefulness of the Korean people, the capital of the socialist fatherland where the great Leader Comrade Kim II Sung is, together with the Party Central Committee and the Government. In ancient times, Pyongyang had been built as the metropolis of the Kogooryu Dynasty; a city of history, with a beautiful. culture created at each successive stage of its long history, telling of the struggle of the people who valiantly beat back ag452

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gressors swarming from various foreign lands, and later smashed the U.S. pirate ship ‘‘General Sherman” and fought the Japanese invaders. Into this city of Pyongyang the liberated Korean people welcomed,Comrade Kim I] Sung with stormy cheers, the great Leader who returned in triumph after clearing the long thorny path of struggle and defeating Japanese imperialism. This was the cradle of the great enthusiasm of the Korean people which enabled them to brilliantly rebuild the country. It is here that Comrade Kim II Sung worked out the strategy and tactics of genius and threw the U.S. imperialists boasting of the “strongest power” in the world, down the path of defeat. The honoured heart of Korea is enshrined here in Pyongyang, which had played and will play an immeasurably great role in the political, economic and cultural life of the people. Attaching great importance to the building of Pyongyang in the postwar rehabilitation, Comrade Kim I] Sung took the lead and in person led the work of construction. Already amidst the flames of the war, he had drawn up a blueprint for the construction of an enlarged Pyongyang. Particularly famous is what he said to an architect in January 1951. “There were many defects in Pyongyang City because it was built in an uncultured and lop-sided way at the time of Japanese rule. There were only a few cultural institutions, no park worth mentioning, nor square. Stores were concentrated in limited areas and were extremely inconvenient for shopping. You must take into full consideration a future Pyongyang free from such colonial one-sidedness and equipped with cultural institutes and hygienic installations for broad sections of the working people. Main attention should be paid to setting up modern traffic networks, houses and cultural institutes.

I think you need to lay out a square here, in the centre of the city, build an avenue along the Daidong River, starting from 453

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Moranbong, and plan to throw

a few more bridges over the

Daidong River. The Daidong and Botong Rivers flow through Pyongyang

which is blessed with natural scenery, and which should be made more beautiful. The banks of the Botong and Daidong Rivers are very dirty now. The dirtier the places now, the cleaner and more

beautiful

they should become.” Immediately after the victory, he unfolded the blueprint for reconstruction of Pyongyang prepared amid the sound of guns, and began to put it into practice. The Plenum of the Cabinet was called on July 30, the fourth day after the cease-fire, and directions and methods for rehabilitation of the capital were presented. Comrade Kim II Sung said at the Plenum: “Pyongyang is an historic capital with a long history, and since the August 15 Liberation, has been the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Pyongyang was and will be the general staff of the democratic revolution which will organize and mobilize the entire people in the victorious fighting, as it was not only in the period of peacetime construction of our country, but also in the most arduous days of war. Pyongyang suffered continued saturation bombing by the enemy during the war. Tens of thousands of tons of bombs were dropped on the city of Pyongyang. Nevertheless, Pyongyang City has not lost its vitality in its general life and activities. Pyongyang City is a hero city safeguarded by the heroic struggle of the entire people. In rehabilitating Pyongyang City, it should be built in such a way that it can be handed down through generations to come

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as a monument to the fact that it was the democratic capital ot the Republic which won victory in the hard-fought war against U.S. imperialism. And it should be cleared of colonial lopsidedness and fully equipped with cultural institutes and hygienic installations for broad sections of the working people, and main efforts should be concentrated on forming modern traffic networks and setting up up-to-date installations for various organs.”’ The words reflected his lofty intention to clear the old Pyongyang of its colonial one-sidedness, and to build it into an entirely new, popular socialist city and into a most beautiful and modern capital. In the course of building Pyongyang City his revolutionary plan was carried out excellently. Built into the very structures that went up one after another, were his lofty aspirations and energetic activities to bring them to fulfilment. The whole of Pyongyang rose in response to the appeal of

i

e

eam!

ae

ee

Pal 2s

SS

eS

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the Leader for construction of Pyongyang City. Soldiers, workers, office employees, students, wives and all other citizens came

out to remove the rubble and level the ground. Day and night, the roar of motors and cheers could be heard; machines and men were in lively action, raising the dust in removing the ruins. The whole country sent materials and builders to this city. A nationwide “battle” was fought to reconstruct the capital. Though busy leading the whole rehabilitation of the country, Comrade Kim I] Sung appeared at construction sites even in the foggy dawn or on rainy nights. Whether it was the hottest summer Sunday or a snowy winter night, clad in quiet clothes, he was there together with the builders. On these occasions, he passed on to them his creative ideas and advice, solving knotty problems. He also extended fatherly love to them, taking meticulous care of their living, from meals to bedding and footwear. Encouraged by his teachings and solicitude, they replied with heroic labours and great success. Armymen, office employees, college students and all others sweated as they toiled. College

students were especially valiant and excellent, not forgetting their smiles and songs, while engaged in restless work from early morning till late at night, carrying earth and sand. It went on like a battle. Basic drilling sites were a reminder of the tunnelling work during the war, and the sparkling roadbuilding sites at night were like a battlefield where a hand-tohand fighting went on. Comrade

Kim Il Sung frequented such sites, and showed

his unstinted affection for the workers, who derived their wisdom

from him. Wherever he went he was met with stormy applause and cheers, echoing from one workshop to another, shaking the whole of Pyongyang When the applause and cheers were hushed, Pyongyang surged on like a raging sea, rising on the 456

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whirlwind of labour. After days and nights of work, the builders of Pyongyang with the Leader present, held opening ceremonies for the Central Avenue, the People’s Army Avenue and Kim II Sung Square in August 1954, one year after work started, and Pyongyang began to show its present modern appearance. With these exploits as the basis, work on construction was enlarged to a grander scale. A great struggle for rehabilitation was also waged at housing construction sites. Home construction was an urgent task because there was scarcely a house left standing, and many people were gathering at the city. Comrade Kim Il Sung was worried about the Pyongyang people, forced to live still in dugouts or barracks. In order to remedy this situation as quickly as possible, he started large-scale cultural housing construction, often visiting the construction sites. Whenever he did so he paid keen attention to the blueprints, and to every detail of the houses, and corrected defects.

He also earnestly told the builders to build better houses faster for their own benefit and for all the people. Seeking ways of speeding up construction, Comrade Kim I] Sung introduced the policy of drastically mechanizing the work of construction and employing prefabrication methods. When mechanization of construction became a pressing question, Comrade Kim I] Sung met the leading personnel, architects and workers of the construction section, and gave his explicit guidance to them. On January 17, 1958, he called leading personnel of the construction section and carefully explored together with them every possibility of employing boldly the prefabrication methods to establish reserves and build more houses faster and cheaper. The next day, accompanied by them, he went to see reserves to reduce building costs. And on the 18th and 19th he met workers engaged in construction in the city. 457

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Taking an amiable look at the workers, he said: “We live in the same city. Today let’s sit together for a talk. Let’s discuss concretely what to do in order to employ the prefabrication method in construction, how to save materials and manpower and how to reduce costs. Today the demand for houses is different, qualitatively and quantitatively, from what it was in the past. Formerly people were satisfied with roughlybuilt houses of old brick, as they had

just come

out

of the

dugouts. But today the people are not satisfied with such houses; they are demanding better dwellings. As the national economy develops and the people’s living conditions are improved, a greater number of fine houses should be built. To this end houses should be set up by the prefabrication method.” Workers said that using the prefabrication method, they could build houses nearly twice as fast as by the former en-bloc method. He thought for a while, and said: “It is wonderful to double figures. But, let’s explore possibilities of getting a little more. When farmers fight to increase crop yield per jungbo, our construction methods should fight to reduce costs per cubic metre and improve the quality of houses.” His words inspired the workers. They strove to find reserves, calculating the capacity of installations and labour usage. But their discussions got them nowhere, as they were unable to find the reserves. Joining the workers in the calculation of technical figures, Comrade Kim Il Sung said that by the prefabrication method greater successes would be scored with far less labour consumed. He asked a worker seated in front, affectionately putting his hand on his shoulder: “How many workers did you estimate are needed in the prefabrication work with a one-crane unit?”

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A worker said: “Twelve, I estimate.”

“Too many, I think. Don’t regard the crane as something mysterious only because it is a large machine. Don’t you think the figure can be cut by half?” The work was calculated again. They concluded that only 2.7 units of manpower were needed by the prefabrication method, as against 10.12 by the former en-bloc method. “Premier! We've got it. We've put the figure at 2.7.” A worker happily answered, holding high his notebook, like a pupil who had solved a difficult problem in arithmetic. Comrade Kim II Sung, proudly looking at him, said: “Good. We can find out many reserves when we calculate so precisely. I think there are still more reserves latent which will enable us to save materials and manpower and cut the cost of construction. There is the way of lowering each floor of each house; and if you reduce the per-unit rotation time of cranes to seven or eight minutes, finish plastering while the units are being made in the factories instead of doing it at the construction site, you'll be able to build houses cheaper and faster.” The detailed guidance of Comrade Kim II] Sung in employing the prefabrication method led to a great innovation in housing construction. Upholding his teachings and appeal, the citizens and builders of the democratic capital of Pyongyang rose up and performed world-startling miracles. They soon established surprising reserves and “Pyongyang speed” —a wall was set up in three minutes, a flat assembled in 14 minutes, one storey of a many-storeyed apartment house was built in a night, flats for more

than 20,000 families

were

built

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his visit to Pyongyang as follows: “T stayed in Pyongyang for 10 days. During my stay new buildings mushroomed so fast along both sides of the road I took every day that I lost my way. Later, I felt uneasy over a solitary walk. In those days I heard a flat was built every 14 minutes, and I knew from my own experience that this was not an exaggeration.” Comrade Kim II] Sung paid special attention to increasing the quality of construction and houses. One day, in order to understand in detail what kind of house was demanded by the people, he inspected the construction site for a five-storeyed apartment house at Sinchang-dong near Daidong Bridge, and then visited a family living on the second floor of an apartment house along Youth Street of the same district. Returning the greetings of the wife, who was too happy to know what to do, he asked: “How are you getting along?” “We are living well with nothing to worry about, thanks to

the State.” Her voice was choked with emotion in meeting the warm fatherly love of the Leader who worried about her family, even after they had been given an excellent new flat. After asking her in detail about the work of her husband, their income and members of her family, he said: “How do you

feel in this house?” She replied that she had nothing more to desire, as she had moved to this fine apartment from a dugout, thanks to the deep solicitude of the Leader. But the flat had a wooden floor, not equipped with the “ondol” heater. It was equipped with a heater, but had quite a few defects which did not match the way of living of Koreans accustomed to the “ondol’” system. Aware of this, he put his 460

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hand on the floor to examine its warmth, and asked again: “What do you think, compared with an ‘ondol’-heated room? In the past our grandfathers said that they felt their life was worth living only when they were served a meal by their - daughter-in-law, sitting cross-legged on the warm ‘ondol’-heated roommate “Premier! It’s true. The ‘ondol’-heated room is the best for those living with old parents or bringing up babies. How wonderful it would be, if this apartment house were heated by ‘ondol.’” The wife, who had been a little stiff before, now

relaxed

and talked frankly as if before her parents. Turning to the accompanying leading personnel, Comrade Kim II Sung said: “How about it? Ithink the wife is right in what she says. The wife has given us a very good idea. All is good that the people say is good. You'd better examine whether the ‘ondol’system can be installed in the rooms of multi-storeyed apartment houses, too, in future.’ So saying, he looked round the flat. Then, he looked for rule. With the rule in hand, he measured the length and breadth of a room. After that, pointing out the room was too long, he taught them in detail that they had

better partition the flat in such an appropriate way as to provide best convenience for the dwellers, and lower the ceilings a little as they, he thought, were too high. In the kitchen, he carefully looked at the kitchen-table, plates in a cupboard, rice bin and even the coal storage. He told the building functionaries that they should make the kitchen bigger so that a wife could work at ease there even with a baby on her

back. “Madame, what else do you want me to do? asked he. “There is nothing else.’

?

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“When you think of something to say in the future, too, don’t hesitate to speak up with your opinion to the Party or functionaries concerned. We build houses and carry on the revolution for a happy life for the people. How can we go on without knowing the people’s opinions and their living conditions? Only when leading personnel go down among the people and the people come nearer to them, and talk freely with each other about everything will we be successful.” Comrade Kim I] Sung considered it most important to build all buildings so that they may match the daily life and cultural inclination of the people. At the Pyongyang City Constructors’ Meeting held in December 1958, he said:

“What is the socialist content of houses we build? It means that they are convenient for the people, cozy, beautiful and solid. This is the minimum in quality we demand of architecture.” This is a remark of wisdom which gave a perfect definition of the socialist content inherent in the art of architecture. Such kindred solicitude of his is embodied in the modern cultured houses which stand one after another in Pyongyang City, and every part of the northern half. Besides houses, Comrade Kim II] Sung paid careful attention to the construction of educational, cultural and service installations. He pointed out that fine schools should be built and run well. He was deeply concerned about schools to be built—their location, lighting of the classrooms, equipment, and the size of the playground. When plans were proposed for the building of theatres, cinema houses and stadiums, he told the builders to set up excellent ones which would be cultural centres for the people. He went so far as to express his concern over sound — effects, lighting and other technical questions. 462

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Pyongyang saw the construction of many schools and cultural and service institutes with national architectural beauty, which were built in line with his specific teachings. The “Pyongyang speed,” an embodiment of the energetic and scientific leadership of Comrade Kim II] Sung, gave rise to miracles not only in housing construction, but in the building of all other structures. The builders of the capital in only a year built Okryoo Bridge, incomparably bigger and more magnificent than Daidong Bridge which took the Japanese imperialists seven years; they built in 45 days the Pyongyang Department Store, several times larger than the Pyongyang Hwasin (now the First Department Store) constructed in no less than seven years and nine months at the time of Japanese imperialist rule, and in a year the Pyongyang Grand Theatre 23 times larger than it was \

before.

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None of these buildings can be thought of without taking into account the meticulous guidance of Comrade Kim II Sung. In building the Pyongyang Grand Theatre he gave instructions to the architects and other builders on over 30 occasions,

and five times he visited the construction site for the grand theatre, where he carefully looked round its structure and interior equipment. He put his heart into building centres of culture and arts for the people. One day, when he went to the construction site for the grand theatre and inspected the theatre on the verge of completion, he pointed out that the ceiling of the stage did not match its atmosphere. At that moment the director of the construction office for the grand theatre showed him a letter from a worker. In his letter the worker had said that the ceiling of the stage looked like a storehouse. Then the Leader said: “That’s right. All is bad that the people say is bad; and all is good that the people say is good. The masters of this theatre are the people, so it must be built in the way desired by them.” Saying that it was just like a wild goose dropping out of a flying flock of four, he said that it would be better to change the ceiling.

Being told that 60 per cent of the floor space was for spectators, he pointed out that this was a proper centre for culture and arts for the working people. After pointing out that Kyungbok Palace built long before at the cost of the people’s blood and sweat was a place of tyrants for suppression and exploitation of the people, he stressed: “This grand theatre we are building will be a genuine centre of arts for the people, so it should be built as one for the benefit . of the people and as desired by them. The grand theatre is a monumental building of the era of the Workers’ Party to be

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handed down through many generations to come. So, it should be a magnificent one.” Laying out parks and recreation grounds and building greenbelt towns are some of the most important aspects in construction of modern cities. He saw to it that beautiful parks and pleasure grounds were laid out as pleasant cultural rest places in various districts in step with the socialist workers’ daily rising standard of living. Pyongyang abounds in picturesque park-like hills and mountains such as the Mangyungbong and the Moranbong Hills and Mountains of Daisung, Haibang, Changgwang, and rivers, large and small, including the Daidong and Botong Rivers. He worked out a plan to use this natural beauty of the city and change it into a great park where people can live surrounded by grass and trees and flowers, and under his guidance, Moranbong Park, other parks and recreation grounds appeared one after another in many parts, to the great pleasure of the people. Comrade Kim I] Sung gave careful instructions even in planting a tree ora flower. He taught that even the cities should be full of greenery in such a way as to match the natural conditions and geographical features of beautiful Korea, as well as the sentiments and feelings of the people. The “‘enclose-with-park” plan for Pyongyang City had already been in his mind during the war when he mapped out the rehabilitation of the city. Trees were prepared even from that time, ready to be planted in parks, pleasure grounds and along the streets. He had nursery fields prepared on Reungra Island, Rimheung and other places, called in horticulturists from various parts of the country to prepare some 30 kinds of trees and shrubs, including weeping willows, maidenhair trees, paulownia trees and “Pyongyang maples.” 465

KIM IL SUNG

The “Pyongyang maple,” named by him after the cease-fire, belongs to the maple family. He took the trouble of collecting seed from maple trees in the garden of his own home and sent them to the nursery. Moved by his lofty intention to make Pyongyang City a green city, sapling growers put their soul into striking and growing them. After the armistice, they planted the saplings in every park and street in the city. Comrade Kim II] Sung elaborated a blueprint for greening and enclosing Pyongyang City with parks, the location of greenbelts from the botanical point of view, the balance of colours between terrain and buildings, and he went out to give instructions on the spot. Following his instructions, Pyongyang saw the appearance of Weeping Willow Street, “Pyongyang Maple” Street, Apricot Tree Street, Bo Tree Street and other streets, which added to the beauty of the city, each planted with a different kind. of tree. Forests of evergreen trees, wild cherry trees and fruit-bearing trees presented a colourful and well-proportioned scene on the

Moranbong

Hill,

recreation

grounds and

various

other

districts of the city. He educated and led functionaries to plant and carefully grow more trees, flowers and grasses. It was a June day in 1954. He went to a People’s Army unit digging a trench to lay a drainage pipe. Gazing at a weeping willow standing in the very line of the drainage pipe, he asked the armymen: “What will you do with this tree?” They hesitated, because they had been indifferent to the destiny of the tree. “Is there any way to keep the tree alive? We'll have to plant more trees....” He did not neglect even a tree, as can be seen in his attitude towards weeping willows which were found standing at many

466

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places in the replanned city. Moved by his lofty spirit, the men kept the tree alive, and laid the drainage pipe under the very roots of the tree. Another story is told about trees. In the autumn of 1962, a doctor of botany working for the Pyongyang Botanical Gardens called at the residence of Comrade Kim II Sung, as he was called by phone and asked to drop in. He was out, so his adjutant showed the botanist into the garden thickly overgrown with trees, and, pointing to a tree, told him the desire of the Leader to raise more trees of its kind. When he examined the tree, the botanist was very surprised. It was

the Dawn

Redwood, an extremely rare tree which was

thought to have perished from the earth. to find this tree in Korea. The Dawn Redwood

It was unimaginable

is a tree that, at its zenith, throve in

Korea and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere in ancient times, well before the appearance of man. Later, it had died out and disappeared, only its records being preserved in books on botany. Later, in the 1940’s, several trees of its kind were found by accident in an Asian country. It caused a sensation in world botany circles, which called it the “greatest discovery in the 20th century.” So, it had been carefully preserved as one of the treasures of the world. Such a rare tree was growing in his garden. There was no knowing through what channels he got it. But it was already 80 centimetres in girth near its base, and six metres tall. The tree is characterized by its fast growth and beautiful shape and is one of the best timbers for quality. The doctor of botany waited for the spring as suitable for multiplying the species. Early in the next spring the botanist was told by phone by Comrade Kim I] Sung to try experiments on its propagation. He immediately formed a research group, 467

KIM IL SUNG

which cut off branches and set out on their experiments. The group failed many times in their experiments, probably because the tree was so rare But, bearing deep in mind the lofty spirit of the Leader, they made repeated painstaking efforts. At last they succeeded in raising 10,000 saplings. One day when he went to the Pyongyang Botanical Gardens, Comrade Kim I] Sung was very pleased with the saplings growing so well. He said happily: “Now, we can hand down the Dawn Redwood to posterity.” He also said that more of the trees should be raised to create many forests of Dawn Redwood throughout the country.” Two hundred thousand saplings of Dawn Redwood were sent to various districts from the Pyongyang Botanical Gardens alone. Dawn Redwood—this is a golden tree he got from somewhere out of his boundless patriotism, and presented not only to the people of the present but also to generations to come. As this story shows, directions on farsighted national policy came from architecture, products and a tree. Indeed, it is due to his far-reaching plan and solicitude, that Pyongyang has been turned into a greenbelt city, colourfully decorated with green and flowers. Pyongyang boasts of broader greenbelts than any other city in the world; its green areas measure 40 square metres per person, as against 1.1 square metres in Tokyo and 3.6 in Paris. Due to this far-seeing plan and meticulous care, Pyongyang has been built into one of the first and most beautiful modern cities in the world. Modern houses stand in line in the central part of the city leading to the Moranbong Theatre through the Central Avenue from Pyongyang Station, gate to the grand capital of the revolution, in East Pyongyang, West Pyongyang and even in Botong and Pyungchun Plains; the Pyongyang Grand Theatre, with 468

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Korean roofs towering high into the sky, reflecting its magnificent figure on the blue Daidong River; the Statue of Chullima symbolizing the indomitable spirit of the era of the Workers’ Party; the imposing buildings of Kim Il Sung University, the academic centre, situated at the foot of Mt. Keumsoo;the elegant style of the Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace soaring on the top of the Jangdai Hill; the Okryoo Hall with its feet partly sunk in the clean waters of the Daidong River; the rainbow-shaped Okryoo Bridge; and crisscrossed broad streets.... This is Pyongyang. Everything represents power, exciting modernness and refined proportions. The area along the Botong River, once the river of tears and sighs, has now changed into a fine recreation ground; the sacred mountain of Daisung,a pleasure ground with a zoo and botanical gardens and Kyungsang Valley famous at the age of Japanese imperialist rule as an amusement centre for bureaucrats and other ruling circles, into a working people’s excellent resting place embroidered with the flowers of each season in full bloom. The history of building Pyongyang into such a magnificent

and beautiful modern city where there was not a tree offering a rest for birds, nor any brick unbroken when the gun reports ceased—it is unthinkable apart from the far-reaching plans and wise leadership of Comrade Kim II Sung, the fatherly Leader, and his solicitude for the people, deeper than oceans and higher than mountains! Pyongyang embraces a sound and active life, burning with revolutionary zeal and giving hope and light to the whole country; Pyongyang which becomes a sea of lights at night and dreams of greater success—the city is continuously developing together with the revolution according to the plan of Comrade Kim I] Sung, surging higher and higher and advancing, while drawing nearer to its brightest future. 469

KIM IL SUNG

The chief of a foreign delegation, who has been to Pyongyang three times since the armistice, says: “Today’s Pyongyang is beautiful, and a future Pyongyang will be more beautiful. A unified Korea will be still more beautiful. I love the present Pyongyang very much, and I will love much more a future Pyongyang for ever. more beautiful and prosperous. ”

470

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4, For. Establishing Juche

MONTHS AND DAYS of renovation passed amid hardfought struggles. A bright and hope-filled life came to the land where such severe battles had been fought. Cities and villages appeared everywhere from the ruins, and newspapers almost daily carried special articles on ceremonies for the opening of new factories and enterprises. Town and country witnessed an upsurge in the significant revolutionary struggle for transforming on socialist lines the old relations of production. All branches of the revolution and construction rapidly developed in depth and scope This development was accompanied by a serious class struggle. The enemies of the revolution were making desperate efforts. Instead of learning lessons from the bitter defeat they suffered in the war, the U.S. imperialists continued to key up tension. When they saw their last shaky base demolished, the domestic class enemy engaged in vicious intrigues. The Korean revolu-

tion was still arduous and difficult. The specific condition demanded the positive putting aside of difficulties and overcoming of bottlenecks in the way of the Korean revolution, and carrying out of hard revolutionary tasks. This made it imperative that Party members and working 47 1

KIM IL SUNG

people should correctly understand the nature of the Korean revolution and participate voluntarily and actively in it. Having fully grasped such a demand caused by the develop ment of the revolution, Comrade Kim I] Sung in April 1955 issued a thesis on the character and tasks of the Korean revolution—‘Let us exert all our strength for the country’s unification and independence and for socialist construction in the northern half of the country.” After making a scientific analysis of the political situation and socio-economic relations in the North and the South after liberation, Comrade Kim II] Sung set out the basic tasks and nature of the Korean revolution. He said: “.. The basic tasks of our revolution at the present stage are to smite the aggressive forces of U.S. imperialism, and the landlords, comprador capitalists, pro-Japanese and pro-American elements, the traitors to the nation in South Korea who usher in and ally themselves with the U.S. aggressive forces, and free the people in the South from imperialist and feudal oppression and exploitation, thereby achieving the country’s unification along democratic lines and attaining complete national independence. ...Our revolution is to carry out the tasks of anti-imperialist national liberation on the one hand, and, on the other, the antifeudal task of liberating the broad masses of the peasantry in the South who are still oppressed and exploited by the landlords.” He also taught that in order to win a nationwide victory for the Korean revolution in the mixed political situation in the South, socialist construction should be vigorously stepped up to further strengthen the revolutionary base in the northern half, the fountainhead of the Korean revolution and. the decisive force for national unification. 472

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EVERYTHING FOR POSTWAR REHABILITATION...

He said that socialist construction in the northern half is not only a fundamental demand for securely ensuring national unification, but a law-governed demand for socio-economic development of the North. Making a scientific estimate in his thesis of the new socioeconomic relations and class relations in the northern half, a result of the fulfilment of the democratic, revolutionary tasks, Comrade Kim II] Sung presented the tasks of the Party for socialist construction in the northern half. He said: “The basic task confronting our Party at the present stage of transition to socialism, is to lay the foundations of socialism

on the basis of the achievements gained in the struggle for the postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy, further consolidating the worker-peasant alliance. We should expand and strengthen the predominant position of the socialist sector by gradually transforming the small commodity and capitalist sectors along socialist lines in all spheres of the national economy, and should develop the productive forces to lay the material and technical foundations of socialism.” Pointing out that socialist reorganization of the old relations of production was the most urgent task for advancing the revolution in the northern half of the Republic, he again clarified the Party policy of transforming along socialist lines the small commodity and capitalist sectors, and concrete methods for putting it into practice.

Next, he instructed that in order to build up the material

and technical foundations

for socialism, it was

necessary to

achieve socialist industrialization, for which priority should be given to development of heavy industry. Firmly basing himself on the original basic line of economic construction of giving priority to heavy industry, while developing light industry and agriculture simultaneously, he made public 478

KIM IL SUNG

the direction of development of the national economy and specific task to attain the economic self-sustenance and independent development of the country. In the thesis, he also put forward

the important

task of

further reinforcing the Party, the general staff of the revolution, organizationally and ideologically, to promote unification and independence of the fatherland and the socialist revolution and socialist construction in the northern half of the Republic. He stressed that in order to further consolidate the Party organizationally and ideologically, iron unity and solidarity of the Party ranks should be assured, Party discipline strengthened, inner-Party democracy and education in the Party policies

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