April 25 is a significant day in the DPRK greeting the 92 nd anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army by President Kim Il Sung , the ever-victorious iron-willed commander and military genius .

On this occasion, the people of the DPRK look back warmly upon the immortal army-building feats of President Kim Il Sung with boundless admiration and ardent yearning for him. He was the founder of the first revolutionary and Juche-oriented armed forces and led it towards victory.

Early in his teens, President Kim Il Sung fully realized that to save the fate of the nation from the military occupation of the Japanese imperialists, the country needed its own army. He started with the two pistols he inherited from his father and embarked on the road to fulfill the cause of building an army.

He studied experiences of and lessons learnt from the armed struggle in the country which played an important part in the early days of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement, and later learned that the previous generations who carried out these armed struggles had made a mistake; they did not believe in the strength of the popular masses and disregarded it.

President Kim Il Sung was convinced that they would win a final victory as long as an armed struggle was waged courageously by relying firmly on the popular masses.

In the historic Kalun and Mingyuegou meetings held in June 1930 and December 1931 respectively, President Kim Il Sung put forward a unique line on rallying up all the Korean people into waging an all-out war against Japanese imperialists with arms and created the slogan “Oppose arms with arms, and oppose counterrevolutionary violence with revolutionary violence!” . He sent many core members to the vast area of Manchuria to lay the groundwork for an armed struggle while actively conducting activities to form a guerrilla army in Antu, a place favorable for a guerrilla warfare.

The word of President Kim Il Sung organizing a guerrilla army in Antu overlooking Mt. Paektu spread its way into the country. Passionate young people from all across Korea and Manchuria made their way to Antu while risking their lives to join the guerrilla army.

He groomed members that were trained and disciplined in revolutionary organizations to become the backbone of the armed ranks and formed the armed units with politically and militarily prepared young people who were shortlisted from paramilitary groups such as the Red Guards, worker pickets and the Children’s Vanguard.

Under the slogan of “Weapons are our life and soul!” , President Kim Il Sung saw to it that they seized the enemy’s weapons to arm themselves while they waged an active campaign to produce weapons on their own.

Along with this, President Kim Il Sung directed great efforts to form a mass foundation for anti-Japanese armed struggle and paid deep attention to forming a joint front with Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units.

President Kim Il Sung made full preparations for the founding of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (KPRA), and held the foundation ceremony with solemnity at Tuqidian valley in Xiaoshahe, Antu county on April 25, 1932.

The founding of the KPRA was the Korean people’s declaration of war against the Japanese aggressors, and at the same time, a historic event that declared to the world that the Korean people finally had a mighty weapon for carving out their own destiny with dignity.

President Kim Il Sung led the 15-year-long anti-Japanese war to victory and achieved the historic cause of national liberation. Then based on his deep insight into the prevailing situation and the future of the development of our revolution, he strengthened and developed the KPRA into a regular army through a fierce struggle against the enemies inside and outside.

President Kim Il Sung led the Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953) against the U.S. armed invasion to victory. During the period of socialist revolution after the war, he gave top priority to the building of revolutionary armed force among national priorities and strengthened and developed our armed force into a Juche-oriented revolutionary army overcoming manifold hardships and trials.

Indeed we owe it to his immortal exploits of army building that our revolution emerged ever-victorious and the gains of revolution were defended staunchly.

Today, our people take great pride and self-esteem in living in a global military power holding in high esteem respected Comrade Kim Jong Un , another brilliant commander, as the supreme commander of the DPRK armed forces. They are renewing their iron-willed commitment to striving harder for the eternal prosperity of the country and happiness of the posterity under the leadership of respected Comrade Kim Jong Un .

President Kim Il Sung , having declared a life-and-death war of resistance against imperialism under the banner of national liberation and independence by our own efforts, devoted his whole life to writing a glorious history of the Korean revolution that advance by dint of arms. His immortal feats of army building will shine for all generations to come.