The 1 000-ri (250-mile) Journey for Learning was a historic trek made by Comrade Kim Il Sung all alone from Badaogou of Changbai County in China to Mangyongdae, his birthplace in Korea, between March 16 and 29 in 1923.

One day in early 1923, young Kim Il Sung was told by his father that he should know the reality of his country in order to achieve its independence.

That day his father Kim Hyong Jik told him: A man born in Korea must have a good knowledge of Korea; if you get to understand clearly while you are in Korea why she has been ruined, that will be a great achievement; share the fate of the people in your home town and experience how miserable they are; then you will see what you should do.

In accordance with his father’s wish, Kim Il Sung decided to study in Korea and embarked on the long journey for learning on March 16 1923.

The journey from Badaogou across the Amnok River to Mangyongdae was a long and gruelling trek.

It was March, but the weather was appalling.

For more than half the 250 miles of the journey he had to walk over steep, craggy mountains which were virtually uninhabited. Even in full daylight beasts of prey prowled about the woods.

In his reminiscences With the Century, the President wrote:

“I suffered a lot during the journey. I really had a hard time of it while crossing the Jik Pass, Kae Pass (Myongmun Pass) and the like. It took me a whole day to cross the passes in Mt. Oga. When I had crossed one pass another would appear. It seemed there was no end."

After spending a night at an inn in Kanggye, he sent a telegram to his parents at the Kanggye Post Office.

The telegram would cost 3 jon for each of the first six characters and 4 jon each for any more. So he wrote 6 characters “Kang Gye Mu Sa To Chak” (Arrived safely in Kanggye—Tr.)

He resumed his journey and arrived in Kaechon via several places to travel by rail to Pyongyang via Sinanju.

He sent a second telegram to his parents and finally entered the courtyard of his old home towards sunset on March 29.

The journey for him was a journey of learning about his homeland and fellow countrymen.

Through the trek, he deeply realized that though suffering misfortune and pain as a ruined nation under Japanese military rule, the Korean people were truly a kind-hearted and morally excellent nation preserving their traditional fellowship and beautiful customs.

Watching carefully the reality of his sorrow-stricken country which was in tears of blood, he made a firm pledge to defeat the Japanese imperialists who turned the country into a veritable hell and liberate it at any cost.

With that pledge, he made the 1 000-ri Journey for National Liberation and waged the great anti-Japanese war, thus achieving Korea’s liberation and establishing an invincible socialist state dignified with independence, self-sustenance and self-reliance in national defence on the land of his country.