The Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953) was a fierce showdown between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States, notorious as the ringleader of aggression. It is also known as a fight between a rifle and an atomic bomb.

The DPRK was liberated from the Japanese military occupation (1905-1945) and it was less than two years old when the US mounted the war against it.

At the beginning of the war, MacArthur, the then commander of the US Far East Command, swore that he would end the war in 72 hours.

From late April 1950 the US reinforced its 7th Fleet with two aircraft carriers, two cruisers and six destroyers for what it called a joint drill involving its ground, naval and air forces, and dispatched three B-26 and B-29 bomber regiments, six interceptor regiments and two transporter regiments in Japan. It also reinforced the four divisions of US 8th Army in Japan with tanks, guns, transport means and others, so that they could be prepared for entering the Korean front any time.

According to a Japanese book, titled Korean War , the US air force in Japan kept ready a total of 595 aircraft—375 fighters including jets, 40 fighters for night battle, 80 bombers, 50 transporters and 50 liaison aircraft, and MacArthur believed that the US air force in the Far East would put an easy end to the Korean war.

When the US started the war in the Korean peninsula, therefore, the world was apprehensive about the destiny of the nascent DPRK, expressing deep sympathy.

Given the prevailing situation, the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and an extraordinary meeting of the DPRK Cabinet, in which he issued the Korean People’s Army and the People’s Security Forces an order to check the enemy’s armed invasion and switch over to an immediate and decisive counterattack.

Pursuant to his order, the soldiers of the People’s Army and the People’s Security Forces tuned out as one in the sacred war to defend the country’s freedom and sovereignty and switched over to a counterattack.

According to his strategic measures and operational policies, the People’s Army units went over to an immediate counterattack throughout the front line while concentrating their main forces on the operation to liberate Seoul, thus taking the city in three days after the start of the war.

The miraculous victory in the operation to liberate Seoul which shook the colonial rule by the US imperialists to its foundation was born of the sagacious guidance of Kim Il Sung endowed with far-sighted wisdom, matchless courage and outstanding art of command.

Ko Chol Hwa