August 15 brought about a fundamental turn in hewing out the destiny of the country and nation.

80 years has passed since the day when the colonial rule of the Japanese imperialists was put to an end, cheers for the national liberation rocked the country and the whole nation was full of great excitement and new hope.

The historic day is associated with the strategic position and influence of our state leading the current of the independent era at the centre of the world political structure and the revolutionary spirit of our people.

The great leader Kim Il Sung is a peerless patriot who saved the destiny of our country and nation which might totally disappear on the world map.

The period of the Japanese imperialist colonial rule was a dark age when the 5,000-year-long history and national culture were being eclipsed and the names as well as the spoken and written Korean language obliterated.

At that time, Kim Il Sung set out on the road of revolution in his teens, shouldering the destiny of the fellow countrymen, declared an all-out confrontation with the Japanese imperialists and waged the 20-year-long bloody anti-Japanese war to accomplish the historic cause of national liberation.

Human history records many famous politicians and great men who made a contribution to the sovereignty of their countries and nations.

But there was no such a distinguished leader and peerless patriot as Kim Il Sung who defeated the formidable imperialist enemy despite the harsh conditions without any state backing and support of a regular army and fundamentally changed the destiny and position of the country and nation.

The great significance of August 15 is not confined only to the fact that a country and nation severed the chains of colonial slavery and took back all the rights.

The anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle that achieved independence of the country provided a noble tradition and wealth with which a new liberated Korea and her people can emerge ever-victorious and successfully pioneered a new road of the national liberation revolution, encouraging the struggle of the oppressed people of the whole world.

Herein lies another significance of the victory in the great anti-Japanese war.

Dr. Ri Yong Chol, Section Chief of the Academy of Social Sciences, said Kim Il Sung is a legendary hero who set a world-historic example of the national liberation struggle under the banner of independence and self-reliance, and continued:

"In the early 20th century, the people's struggle for freedom and independence of the country and nation was waged in all parts of the world and the national liberation raised as a fatal and urgent problem.

The anti-Japanese revolution was the struggle which pioneered the most correct road of national liberation in colonial countries and won a victory.

Having seen through the reality that it was impossible to achieve the country's independence by dependence on foreign forces in the initial period of his revolutionary career, the great leader Kim Il Sung advanced a thoroughgoing independent idea that the Korean revolution should be carried out by the Korean people themselves and applied it to the revolutionary practice."

The struggle was waged on a nationwide scale to implement the original policy on party founding, the line of the anti-Japanese national united front and the line of all-people resistance advanced by Kim Il Sung, with the result that the powerful revolutionary forces were formed to defeat the Japaneses imperialists by the Korean nation itself.

The national liberation is a brilliant fruition of his idea on national sovereignty and self-reliant independence.

The victory in the anti-Japanese revolutionary war served as a foothold that made it possible to dynamically decorate the founding of Juche Korea and the course of her development with independence and self-reliance.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea became a politico-ideological and military power by maintaining the independent revolutionary line in the state building and activities.

It is the basic conclusion drawn from the past 80-year-long history that nobody and nothing can stop the advance of the Korean people with the spirit of national independence and national self-respect.

Kim Il Sung was an unparalleled great man who provided the noble revolutionary tradition our state and people should carry forward forever.

The most arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle unprecedented in history was the one that provided the valuable tradition and wealth with which the Korean revolution can win victory after victory in whatever storm and stress.

The anti-Japanese revolutionary tradition comprehends everything guaranteeing the victorious advance of the revolution including the great idea, spirit, exploits, experiences and methods.

Thanks to the revolutionary tradition, three tasks of party, state and army building could be carried out in a short period after liberation and the Korean people could create a myth of war victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.

A golden age in the era of the Workers' Party was ushered in under the slogan "Let us produce, study and live like the anti-Japanese guerrillas!" and the historic victory in the "Arduous March" in the 1990s was brought about in this revolutionary spirit.

Herein lies the pride of the Korean people who have glorified their idea, social system and cause, holding fast to the revolutionary tradition of the anti-Japanese war as an invincible weapon.

The Korean people's victory in the anti-Japanese revolutionary war proves that one can defeat any formidable enemy, save the destiny of the country and nation from misery and open up a bright road ahead of the country only under the guidance of a prominent leader.