Pyongyang, August 15 (KCNA) -- The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un makes a speech at the celebration of the 80th Anniversary of Korea's liberation.

The full text is as follows:

Esteemed comrades and friends,

Dear Pyongyang citizens and all other people across the country and officers and men of the Korean People’s Army,

Today at the square which was filled 80 years ago with the delight of tens of millions of the people in regaining their country, we are feeling again the emotion of the day.

Today’s celebration that makes us recall with deep emotion the birth of our state and the sacred course of its development constitutes an affirmation of the times and a proud review of the immortal spirit that brought about a turn in the people’s destiny and the history of decades-long resistance as well as of how the 80-year-long history of the new Korea could reach the height of dignity and honour.

Availing myself of this meaningful opportunity, I, on behalf of all the descendants who have led a worthwhile life on the land of freedom and prosperity bequeathed to them by the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters and patriotic martyrs, pay ennobling tribute to the fighters and martyrs for devoting their all for the sacred struggle to achieve the independence and prosperity of the country.

My warm greetings go to the people across the country and all the officers and men of our armed forces who are opening a new era of prosperity and development by devoting ardent affection and inexhaustible wisdom for their precious and sacred country.

And recalling with deep reverence the militant feats of the officers and men of the Red Army who shed their blood in the liberation cause of our people, I pay noble tribute to the martyrs.

I also extend warm greetings to Comrade Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation, Comrade Vyacheslav Volodin and other distinguished Russian guests who are on a visit to our country, and other dear Russian comrades-in-arms and fraternal people who are celebrating our people's liberation day as a holiday common to the two countries with deep trust and feelings of friendship.

Comrades,

August 15, 1945 was for the Korean people a starting point of the turn of their destiny, when they regained the independent dignity that is as precious as their life itself, and is a day of great victory.

Over the past centuries many countries and nations experienced tragic plight owing to the powers’ wars of conquest that swept the world, but none was so completely trampled down and plundered as our country in its days of Japanese imperialist colonial rule.

The country’s liberation checked the history of national ruin, which left the greatest disgrace in its history spanning five thousand years and was filled with its people’s grudge and grief.

We celebrate the country’s liberation not only as an auspicious event that brought a turn from a colony to an independent state but also as a laudable event to be remembered with reverence from one generation to the next. It is because it is associated with the priceless soul and sacrifices.

The days of Japanese imperialist colonial rule are recorded in history not only as days of distress of the Korean people but also as days of a bloody resistance struggle of the people, who are strong in patriotism and self-respect and never compromise with injustice.

The Japanese imperialists inflicted tyranny and violence unprecedented in human history in an attempt to stamp out even the soul and spirit of Korea, but they could not break its people’s steadfast spirit for independence; the patriotic anti-Japanese struggle of the people to win back their national sovereignty at the cost of their lives did not stop even a moment.

The armed struggle of their fine sons and daughters against the militarist Japan that emerged as a power in Asia was a death-defying, bloody resistance they fought shouldering the destiny of their country and their descendants and overcoming severe ordeals and painful sacrifices; and the anti-Japanese revolutionary feats they performed from the consistent independent stand are clear proof of the course the Korean people pioneered to achieve independence by their own efforts.

It is in no way an accidental event in the course of history, but the victory won by the all-people anti-Japanese forces that fought unto death in the spirit of independence. Herein lies the revolutionary character and political importance of our cause of liberation.

With the day of August 15, our people regained all that they had lost–their sovereignty, territory, resources, history and culture–and secured all possibilities for achieving their freedom and carving out their destiny, thus embarking with the dignity befitting masters on the road of their great pioneering cause of democratic development and wellbeing.

Even if history may change its chapters in the years to come and the times earn new names, like the past 80 years have witnessed, the weight and value of August 15, which our people won by dint of their willpower and struggle, will never change or decrease but remain absolute.

Comrades,

Today we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of liberation with a boundless sense of dignity and honour as we have left the proudest and most sacred traces for our forerunners, our country and our coming generations.

Unless there is a baton a country or nation defends and passes at the cost of their lives even when they have a great history their pioneers wrote at the cost of their lives, and unless they struggle generation after generation to keep safe and add lustre to the invaluable gains bequeathed by the forerunners, such a country or nation will have no other alternative but to see their bloodline cut off and forfeit their right even to remember their past with honour.

We are celebrating the day of national liberation with such splendour today because we feel really proud of the course of the struggle we have followed willingly in order to build a country of everlasting strength and prosperity on this land dyed with the red blood of the forerunners.

August 15 marked the day of victory when our nation accomplished their long-cherished desire for freedom and independence, as well as the start of their struggle to build a powerful country so as to put an end to the history of sufferings for good.

The new historic mission, which the Korean communists and other people took upon themselves with August 15 as the watershed, turned out to be a truly formidable task which, from the beginning, demanded unprecedented pioneering efforts that could not be estimated by any existing conceptions or formulas and which was accompanied by unbearably arduous struggle against the hostile nations who lived on counter-revolution.

The liberation vanquished the forces–and their foundations–that had been trying to reverse our country’s social development, and yet we were confronted with innumerable challenges and obstacles; there still existed imperialism that was in the lead of aggression war and other moves to put the newly independent countries under its control again while separating and alienating them and seeking a policy of neo-colonialism; and the dominationist forces resorted to pressure and intervention to fix the gap between the advanced and backward nations once and for all.

All of them, however, were not strong enough to dampen the strong sense of self-respect and tenacity inherent to the Korean people.

Their determination to be independent without being subjected to any foreign forces again has surpassed the tyrannical and high-handed practices, and their patriotic aspiration and efforts for an honourable and happy life have survived all trials and difficulties on their way.

The glorious history of building a prosperous country with a powerful army, in which we have carried on in our own way the political, economic and defence construction in the most severe decades, is associated with the viability of the line of independence that has served as the invariable principle and duty in our state building and activities, as well as the perseverance peculiar to the Korean people who never abandon the spirit of self-dependence even if it means giving up their lives.

The pains and trials we have experienced on the road of safeguarding the ideals and system of our own choice and building ours into a powerful and thriving nation can never be described in books however many they may be.

However, our people consider the struggle to be precious, worthy of remembering as a source of glory and happiness, and feel special pride in the current history and reality.

They established and defended by themselves the government which would provide them with their independent life and future and built up their great might that no force dared to provoke, and they are achieving prosperity in their own way. This is the pride of the Korean people that no others can feel.

By dint of the might and pride, our country has developed into a powerful fortress firmly defending independence, justice, dignity and peace, and is making a considerable contribution to the cause of liberation of mankind, frustrating the imperialists’ high-handed and arbitrary practices to turn back the tide of history.

Great are the excitement and pride of our people who have built with their own struggle, efforts and wisdom a thriving country desired by the revolutionary forerunners and representative of their youthful vigour, and now celebrate the 80th anniversary of liberation.

The 80th anniversary of national liberation is a monument to national prosperity that our people have built on the foundations of independence and sovereignty which put an end to subordination and submission, and a watershed of dignity and glory in which they have demonstrated the new position and prestige of their country with unshakable consciousness of independence and through an indomitable struggle.

Comrades,

At this moment when I look back upon the history spanning 80 years after the birth of a new Korea, I am again filled with boundless reverence for our great people.

Etched in our memory are a large number of names of the people who brought victory and honour to the country through their militant exploits and feats in the different years and decades, and the spirit of numerous heroes who sacrificed their dreams, love and youth for their country still pulsates in our hearts.

Our people dedicated their lives readily for the country and the revolution, unhesitatingly encouraged their dear children to follow in their footsteps, and regarded it not as sorrow but as honour when their sons and daughters failed to return alive. Such fortitude peculiar to our people remains unchanged and has been inherited for a century, from the days of the anti-Japanese war up to now.

As we reflect on it now, such fortitude was by no means an unusual feeling or impulse that was displayed in a certain period of history, namely the years of the anti-Japanese revolution characterized by the gravity and severity of circumstances. Rather, as a manifestation of the greatness of the Korean people, it mirrors their ennobling view of life that they can lead a most worthwhile and happiest life by devoting themselves to the victory and glory of their motherland. It is a spirit and tradition which, like a bloodline, will always be handed down and carried forward without fail generation after generation.

This immortal inheritance constitutes the best of the Korean people’s advantageous and great qualities.

History and reality clearly show who are buttressing the political power of this country, what is the conviction and spirit they cherish in carrying forward the revolution, and what is the source of powerfulness for Korea.

The masses of the people are, by nature, just and powerful, but any other people in the world do not have a stronger sense of justice, greater fortitude and higher self-respect than the Korean people.

No force can bring these people to their knees, and the state built up and supported by such patriotic and proud people will continue to exist as a powerful country for all ages.

Availing myself of this opportunity, I would like to extend my noble respects and heartfelt greetings to our people, who have remained infinitely faithful to the historic mission and duties they have assumed for the times, cherishing the most genuine and invariable affection for their country and displaying unyielding fortitude.

Comrades and friends,

Recorded in the chronicles of the decisive battles for Korea’s liberation are the exploits which the officers and men of the Red Army performed while fighting heroically on the first line of the world anti-fascist war, and still vivid in our people’s memory are the ennobling internationalist feats made by the excellent sons and daughters of the Russian people.

The righteous ideals and efforts of the Russian people, who supported and encouraged their fraternal people in the struggle against imperialism and colonialism and for national liberation, have become the precious heritage in developing the blood-sealed and ever-deepening relations between our country and Russia.

Today the bilateral ties are being elevated to those of an alliance unprecedented in history, and they grow solid in the joint struggle to check the revival of neo-Nazism and defend national sovereignty and security and international justice.

The two countries have always stood by justice of history, and currently, through a staunch struggle, they represent humankind’s desires and demands for equality and justice against hegemony.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, in which fascist nations seeking to enslave the whole world were defeated and their criminal atrocities were terminated.

Becoming undisguised on the international arena, however, are the dangerous moves to undermine and reverse the results of the world anti-fascist war and the national liberation struggles, which cost wholesale destruction and colossal losses of lives, and the imperialists are resorting to extremely outrageous means, as never before, in trying to violate the rights and interests of other sovereign states.

With an ambition to restore the spheres of political influence they have lost one by one over the course of history, the imperialists stick to their policies of war and blackmail in a bid to put Europe, Asia and the rest of the globe on a Rightist trajectory and create a unipolar world. To frustrate their extremely brigandish and reckless schemes is a historic duty that the countries and peoples loving peace and advocating justice should assume of their own accord, and this demands strong solidarity in, and joint struggle by, the progressive camp.

Now the DPRK and Russia are working together again to create a history of justice in the same trench of struggle for defending their national dignity and sovereignty and safeguarding global peace and security.

Inexhaustible is the strength of unity between the two countries, which was formed on the basis of ennobling ideals and genuine friendship and is rooted in the historical tradition of supporting each other’s revolution at the cost of blood.

Our Party and government will, in the future, too, remain faithful to the mission entrusted to them by the times and history for independence and justice, and the peoples of the two fraternal countries will always share the great glory of being victors.

Comrades,

This country, which was built and has been developed by our great people, is continuing its vigorous advance towards prosperity even in the face of grave challenges and trials of history. Indeed, the duties are heavy, which our generation assumes before the martyrs who devoted their lives for the present and future of a powerful and prosperous country, and also before the coming generations who will live on this land.

Let us continue to brave undauntedly the challenges facing us for the building of a great powerful country and for the eternal security and prosperity of our beloved state which will shine its brilliance for ever.

Let us add splendour to our great country by dint of our might which has grown through our struggle and of the self-respect and temperament peculiar to our people.

The Korean people’s great history of dignity and glory will shine down through the generations, for all eternity.

Long live the great Korean people!

Long live our glorious motherland, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! -0-

www.kcna.kp (2025.08.15.)