During the Fatherland Liberation War (June 25, 1950–July 27, 1953), the Korean people waged a range of mass-based movements to assist the front in favour of the victory in the war.

In the initial days of the war the front assistance efforts focused on raising money to fund the production of military equipment such as aircraft, tank and warship to be supplied to the front.

Workers, technicians and office workers across the country worked overtime and tried hard to save materials and improve the working efficiency to increase the output so that they could raise more money for arms.

While doing farm work in the face of wartime difficulties, farmers worked to boost production and donated lots of produce and meat.

“Hello, everyone. We are living a proud life as the masters of this land as we have the People’s Army led by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung ,” a farmer from Jaeryong County, South Hwanghae Province, said as he addressed an event to raise the money for arms. “But for the People’s Army, what would have happened to us? This land would have already been seized by the enemy and we would have been reduced back to the slaves of the outsiders. To be or not to be, we are at the crossroads of whether to fight to defend our rights as the masters of our country or to fall back under the yoke of colonial slavery. What will we choose?”

This was not only his call.

Women from all walks of life around the country saved things and worked themselves to raise the fund for building aircraft, tanks and warships.

Schoolchildren also joined the movement. After school they gathered scrap iron, waste rubber, empty cartridges, car parts and other things as many as possible.

The teaching staff at Kim Il Sung University economized on their wages to make donations. Many of them offered the whole of their wages for one or two months in a patriotic deed to help raise money for arms buildup.

As a result, cash in the neighbourhood of 400 million won as well as huge amounts of food grains and precious metals were donated as of August 31, 1950, two months after the war broke out. With the movement gathering momentum, the donations reached over 1.5 billion won in cash and over 33 000 pieces of articles by June 10, 1951.

In addition to fund raising, a movement for donating rice to assist the front was in full swing across the country.

Kim Rak Hui, better known as a ploughwoman, was brave enough to plough fields with an ox camouflaged with green leaves in the teeth of the enemy’s heavy bombing. At the time women had to take over the running of the rear in place of their male folks who went to the front. They formed ox-sharing and labour-aid teams to boost crop yields and, therefore, donated a great deal of grains to assist the front.

Amid the brisk movement, as many as 220 000 straw bags of rice came from across the country as of April 30, 1953.

War veterans still remember the wartime days when they were crushing the American invaders and defending every inch of their country’s territory with those weapons, ammunition and artillery shells provided thanks to the patriotic movements by the people in the rear.

Yang Ryon Hui