Korea was under the military occupation of the Japanese imperialists between 1905 and 1945 and was liberated from the colonial rule on August 15, 1945 by the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army led by Comrade Kim Il Sung (1912-1994).
It was evidently a miracle that the KPRA waged the anti-Japanese war of resistance even without state backing or support from outside forces.
Korean revolutionaries of a new generation fought in direct confrontation with Japanese imperialism, with arms in hand, under the leadership of Kim Il Sung .
The formation of the KPRA was, however, not smooth sailing. By that time only a small number of the Korean revolutionaries had received regular military education, and weapons were in short supply.
But they solved everything by their own efforts, holding aloft the banner of self-reliant liberation advanced by Kim Il Sung . They organized small guerrilla groups, Red Guards and other armed groups and conducted combat activities while preparing young people militarily and politically and training military commanders.
The struggle to equip themselves with arms was still more difficult.
Once Kim Il Sung put down two pistols bequeathed by his father Kim Hyong Jik, the outstanding leader of Korea’s anti-Japanese national liberation movement, before his comrades and said: Let us start our march for independence with these two pistols as the asset. Now we have two pistols, but think that one day they will have multiplied to two hundred, two thousand and then to twenty thousand. With 2 000 rifles, we will be fully able to liberate the country.
In this way he inspired his comrade to obtain weapons.
Under his leadership the members of the small guerrilla groups, the Red Guards and the Children’s Vanguard and even old people turned out in the struggle to wrest weapons from the enemy. In such arduous struggle full preparations were made to form an armed force.
At last the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army was formed with a solemn ceremony in a forest of Northeast China. At the ceremony Kim Il Sung made a rallying speech calling for overthrowing the Japanese colonial ruling system and achieving national independence and social emancipation of the Korean people.
The KPRA, formed with only about a hundred, grew into a large armed force more than thousands strong and won the historic cause of national liberation by waging the hard-fought anti-Japanese struggle for more than ten years.
Han Su Yong
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