There is the bust of Ri In Mo, twice DPRK Hero, winner of the Order of Kim Il Sung and the National Reunification Prize and revolutionary martyr, on Thongil Street in Pyongyang.

The bust on a granite pedestal embossed with the National Reunification Prize depicts him in prison uniform firmly clenching his fists in chains.

He embarked on the road of anti-Japanese patriotic struggle at the age of 12. After joining the Communist Party of North Korea in 1945, he worked as a Party official in the then Phungsan County and Hungnam City and elsewhere.

When the US imperialists and south Korean puppets provoked a war of aggression against the two-year-old DPRK in June 1950, he boldly volunteered for the front to work as a war correspondent of the Korean People’s Army.

In the period of temporary strategic retreat, he waged a struggle behind enemy lines as a member of the Jirisan guerrilla unit, before having a bullet wound unfortunately in January 1952 to be arrested by the enemy.

While serving decades-long term of imprisonment in a cold cell, he kept his conscience as a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea and fought against all manner of temptation, threat and blackmail, medieval torture, cruel punishment and pressure to convert while thinking of his native village and his beloved parents, wife and children.

The unwavering faith that the country would surely be reunified as long as they were led by President Kim Il Sung and the WPK and the will not to change the pledge made before the country even if his body would be crushed and torn to pieces made him fight true to revolutionary principles to the last behind bars.

After being released from prison as a cripple in October 1988, he wrote an article introducing the struggle of the Jirisan guerrilla unit during the Fatherland Liberation War despite his physical pains to tell the world about the enemy’s brutality and barbarity and the reactionary nature of south Korean society.

The DPRK took all measures to bring back the indomitable man, who had fought all his life with the clear-cut patriotic will for reunification, as early as possible. As a result, he was returned to the DPRK by crossing over the Military Demarcation Line on March 19 1993.

President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il met him on several occasions, put him forward as an incarnation of faith and will and a laudable son of the nation, and bestowed all glory and benevolent affection on him.

Ri resumed his literary activities in the DPRK.

He produced odes “For my destiny”, “Thought of love” and “Paean of faith and will” and words of song “Led by you, we will win”, contributed “We have the blessing of having great leaders” and several other articles and wrote and issued a full-length book of reminiscences “Faith and my life”.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un gave prominence to the noble life of Ri In Mo at every opportunity so that the Korean people and posterity could remember him forever.

Today, many youth and students and working people in Pyongyang visit and pay respects at the bust of Ri In Mo.