The founding of the Korean People’s Army, the regular revolutionary armed forces in Korea, was declared to the whole world on February 8, Juche 37 (1948).

At the military parade of the KPA held that day, Comrade Kim Il Sung said as follows:

Comrade officers, noncommissioned officers and men of the Korean People’s Army,

Dear fellow countrymen,

In celebrating the second anniversary of the People’s Committee of North Korea, the organ of genuine people’s power, we today proclaim the founding of the Korean People’s Army, the first regular armed forces belonging to the people in the history of Korea. The Korean people, who had been subjected to all manner of persecution and suppression under the bayonets of the Japanese imperialists, took power into their own hands after liberation and set out to create a new, happy life. And now they have their own full-fledged regular army to defend the country and the nation.

It was the day of historic significance to be specially etched in the history of the nation when the long-cherished desire of the Korean people for having their powerful regular armed forces came true and a sure guarantee for reliably defending the dignity of the country and the nation was provided.

Founding the regular revolutionary army, a strong national army, was a very urgent task of historic importance in building the liberated Korea (August 15, 1945) into a completely independent and sovereign state.

At that time, the situation in the country was very complex. The factional flunkeyists overtly and covertly interrupted the army-building, asserting such rhetoric that it was impossible to found the regular armed forces without foreign aid.

However, Kim Il Sung , with an unshakable will for self-defence, positively pushed ahead with the work to build a regular revolutionary army by the Korean people themselves.

In his speech, On Building the Party, State and Armed Forces in the Liberated Homeland , to the military and political cadres on August 20, 1945, he stressed the need to found a strong national army capable of defending the country and the nation and safeguarding the gains of the revolution in order for the country to become a fully independent and sovereign state. And he wisely organized and led the gigantic undertaking for implementing the cause of army-building.

In those days, he personally chose the site for Pyongyang Institute for training commanding officers needed for the founding of a regular army and paid close attention to the education of the Central Security Cadres School and other centres for training military and political cadres. Meanwhile, he continued his guidance trips to organize units of various arms of the regular armed forces, including tankmen and artillerymen, and secure armed equipment needed for the building of a regular army by the Korean people themselves.

Thanks to his painstaking efforts, a firm foundation for building the regular revolutionary armed forces was laid in a short span of time after the liberation of the country and the KPA could be founded.

As the KPA was founded on February 8, 1948, the Korean people could win the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War in the 1950s and write the history of successive victories in the acute showdown with the imperialists in the 1990s. And the DPRK is now advancing towards a new victory, demonstrating its invincible spirit.

Yang Ryon Hui