On the occasion of July 8, the demise of President Kim Il Sung , the founder of socialist Korea, the progressive peoples of the world are expressing their boundless reverence for him who set the epitome of noble internationalism.

During the period of arduous anti-Japanese armed struggle to liberate our country from Japanese occupation (1905-1945), President Kim Il Sung regarded it as a sacred internationalist obligation of Korean revolutionaries to help the neighbors, Chinese people, with their anti-imperialist struggle.

He put forward the line of common front of anti-imperialism, and organized and commanded combined operations with the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units including the Battle of the Fusong County Town (August 1936) and Shuangshanzi Battle (April 1938), so as to set a living example of internationalism.

In the grim days of anti-Japanese struggle, President Kim Il Sung defended with arms the Soviet Union, the first socialist state. He put forward the slogan “Let Us Defend the Soviet Union with Arms!” and made great contributions to checking and frustrating Japanese invasion with active rear-harassing operations. At the time of the Lake Khasan incident in 1938 and Khalkhin-Gol incident in 1939, he also conducted several battles to deal a heavy blow to Japanese invasion of the Soviet Union.

After the liberation of our country (August 15, 1945), President Kim Il Sung took measures to render active support in all fields to the Communist Party of China having a hard fight with Chiang Kai-shek Kuomintang. It is not without reason that President Mao Zedong and other leaders of China said that the Red Flag with Five Stars, their national flag, is permeated with the blood of Korean revolutionaries.

When Caribbean crisis erupted in 1962, President Kim Il Sung provided Cuba with political and military assistance and he even sent food, tractors and prestigious technical group, saying that we should not spare anything that is needed to safeguard the Cuban revolution from the U.S. invasion.

He sent firm solidarity and selfless aid to the struggle of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Lao people against the U.S. aggression and interference, the anti-colonialist struggle of the people in African countries including Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and the struggle of the people in Latin American countries against the U.S. and pro-U.S. authoritarian regime.

When Middle East War broke out due to the Israeli Zionists, he expressed firm solidarity with Arab people and provided them with tremendous material and military aid.

Whenever the leaders and politicians, whose countries were freed from the yoke of imperialist colonialism and newly achieved independence, rushed to the DPRK and asked for help, President Kim Il Sung informed them about successes and experience our people gained in building a new society and satisfied all their demands.

He rendered many-sided aid and cooperation to them; groups of competent technicians were dispatched to several countries to help their irrigation projects and building of farm implement factories and a large number of tractors, vehicles and machine tools were sent to them.

Didier Ratsiraka, former President of Madagascar, said as follows:

“Some foreigners only give us some fish of their catch when we are hungry. It means that we should always depend on them. But President Kim Il Sung has taught us how to catch fish, so we could catch them by ourselves if necessary.”

Indeed, President Kim Il Sung is the eternal sun of humanity who created the epitome of noble internationalism and paid an immortal contribution to implementing the cause of independence against imperialism.