The Monument to the Victorious Battle of Pochonbo, erected in June 1967, is located in Hyesan City, Ryanggang Province in the north of the DPRK. It is a good reminder of the battle which inspired the Korean people with the hope of national liberation.

The battle fought under the command of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung on June 4, 1937 was a historic event that demonstrated the spirit of national self-respect of the Korean people before the whole world that they could win victory if they fought against the aggressors at the time when they were groaning under Japanese colonial rule.

At 10 p.m. that day the soldiers of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army stormed into Pochonbo, showering a rain of fire on the police sub-station, the enemy’s stronghold, as well as sub-county office, forest conservation office, agricultural experimental station, fire hall, post office and other administrative organs of the Japanese imperialists.

The enemy’s ruling organs in different places of the street were engulfed in flames and the horror-stricken enemies ran about pell-mell. The members of the KPRA information team scattered leaflets and appeals in the street that turned into a sea of flames. After reading the leaflets and appeals, the local people came out shouting, “Long live General Kim Il Sung !” and “Long live the independence of Korea!”

“ Brothers and sisters, look at the flames over there. Those raging flames show that the enemy is doomed. Those flames show the whole world that our nation is not dead but alive, and that if we fight against the Japanese plunderers we can win ,” Kim Il Sung said as he delivered a historic speech before the enthusiastically cheering people.

His speech was a declaration that the Korean nation would continue their resistance struggle with arms in hand until the Japanese imperialists were destroyed.

After concluding the battle in favour of the KPRA, Kim Il Sung organized battles on Mt Kouyushui and Jiansanfeng in which the chasing enemy were annihilated.

Later, the Korean people turned out as one in the sacred struggle for defeating the Japanese imperialists under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and finally achieved the historic cause of the country’s liberation on August 15, 1945.

Nearly 90 years have passed since the Battle of Pochonbo and few witnesses to the significant event are alive.

With the passage of time everything—mountains, rivers and people’s ideological and spiritual life—has undergone a lot of changes, except one thing.

It is the Korean people’s spirit of national self-respect that their country is not dead but very much alive and that they can surely win if they fight.

Today, they, inspired by this spirit, accelerate the advance for building a prosperous country under the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un .

Ham Kwang Hyok