On January 22, 1925, President Kim Il Sung (April 15, 1912-July 8, 1994) embarked on a 250-mile journey from his native home at Mangyongdae to northeast China’s Badaogou with a firm resolve to win back Korea’s independence from Japan.

At the time the Korean people were subjected to harsh colonial slavery under the Japanese military rule.

It was when he heard that his father was arrested by Japanese police while in his revolutionary activities in China that he made up his mind to start the journey. His father Kim Hyong Jik was an outstanding leader of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement. When Kim Il Sung left home, his grandparents felt so sorry for him because they gave him no more than a small bundle containing two pairs of straw sandals and several boiled sweet potatoes.

He made a bow to his grandparents and other relatives before stepping out of the gate of his dear home.

He travelled from Pyongyang to Kaechon by train and walked along for the rest of his tour across high and rocky hills and along snow-covered paths.

In fourteen days, he reached Phophyong in what is now Kim Hyong Jik County, Ryanggang Province (the then Huchang County, North Phyongan Province). At the side of the snowy Amnok River he looked back to the motherland with a broken heart.

Kim Il Sung wrote in his reminiscences With the Century :

“I looked back at the mountains and rivers in the motherland over and again with sorrow and indignation.

“I thought: My dear Korea, I am leaving you. I know I cannot live even for a moment away from you, but I am crossing the Amnok to win you back. Across this river is a foreign land, but I will not forget you, even in there. Wait for me, my Korea.

“Then I sang the song again.

“As I sang this song, I wondered when I would be able to tread this land again, when I would return to this land where I grew up and where my forefathers’ graves lay. Young as I was, I could not repress my sorrow at this thought. Picturing in my mind the miserable reality of the motherland, I made a grim resolve not to return before Korea had become independent.”

Afterwards, he formed the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU) on October 17, 1926 and built the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army as a permanent armed force on April 25, 1932, inspiring the Korean people to turn out for the sacred war against Japan.

He led the anti-Japanese revolutionary war through thick and thin to achieve the historic cause of Korea’s liberation on August 15, 1945, without the backing of a state and support from a regular army.

The Korean people still commemorate his trek, calling it 250-mile journey for national liberation.

Kim Hyon Hui