Eighty-five years have passed since the founding of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, the first anti-Japanese national united front body in Korea.

On this occasion, the Korean people look back upon the immortal exploits performed by President Kim Il Sung who advanced the Juche-oriented idea of great national unity and achieved the historic cause of national liberation by rallying broad sections of the anti-Japanese patriotic forces as one under the banner of anti-Japanese imperialism.

At the historic Kalun Meeting (held in Jiajiatun of Kalun, Changchun County, Jilin Province, China between June 30 and July 2, 1930), Kim Il Sung advanced the Juche-oriented standpoint that the Korean revolution had to be carried out by the Korean people themselves through a concerted effort of the entire Korean nation. He also set forth a policy of uniting all patriotic forces against Japanese imperialism under the banner of united front, and wisely led the efforts to this end.

Later, he convened a meeting at Nanhutou, Ningan County, China, from February 27 to March 3, 1936 (called Nanhutou Meeting) in which he put forward the policy of forming a permanent united front organization. He then organized the preparatory committee for the founding of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland with the competent commanding personnel of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army and representatives of well-reputed patriotic organizations late in March 1936. And now he dispatched small units and political workers of the KPRA to different areas in the homeland and Manchuria to conduct positive organizational and political activities for the founding of the ARF.

While training hardcore forces which would be able to lead the anti-Japanese national united front movement, he drew up the programme, rules and inaugural declaration of the ARF one by one on the basis of the Juche-oriented idea of great national unity he had formulated through his ceaseless meditation and painstaking effort. And he brought the documents concerning the establishment of the ARF to the preparatory committee for the founding of the ARF for final discussion, which came to a unanimous agreement.

Based on these preparations, Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of military and political cadres of the KPRA for the founding of the ARF at Donggang, Fusong County, China, on May 1, Juche 25 (1936). The 15-day meeting was also attended by representatives of Korean independence movement from different parts.

At the meeting Kim Il Sung made a historic report, titled, “Let Us Further Expand and Develop the Anti-Japanese National United Front Movement and Take the Korean Revolution as a Whole to a New Upsurge” and pronounced the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF, Rules of the ARF and Inaugural Declaration of the ARF which he personally had drawn up.

The Ten-Point Programme of the ARF won full support and approval of the participants. It was a declaration of all-people resistance which appealed for liberating Korea through a concerted effort of the entire Korean nation by rallying the revolutionary movement of the working class and the national liberation movement as one under the banner of anti-Japanese imperialism. It was also the original programme to be held fast to by the Korean people in their building of a new society.

The meeting unanimously adopted the Ten-Point Programme, Rules and Inaugural Declaration of the ARF, and the participants elected Kim Il Sung president of the ARF.

On May 5, Kim Il Sung declared the founding of the ARF.

The founding of the ARF marked a historic moment, when the Korean people again solemnly declared their will to fight more dauntlessly against the Japanese imperialists with their own efforts; it also constituted a turning-point in taking the general Korean revolution, with the anti-Japanese armed struggle as the keystone, to a new upsurge.

Kim Il Sung recalled in his reminiscences With the Century :

“The founding of the ARF represented the fruit of the active efforts of our young communists, who had tirelessly trained our revolutionary forces.”

The Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland developed into a pan-national organization embracing hundreds of thousands of members in a short period of time. It expanded to vast areas at home and abroad in a rapid progress, and played a decisive role in arousing broad sections of the masses to the sacred struggle for national liberation.