The year 1947 was the second year after Korea’s liberation (August 15, 1945).
One May day that year the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung asked some senior officials in the fields of youth work and sports to his office and told them to send football and men’s basketball teams to the World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in Prague of the then Czechoslovakia.
On that occasion he indicated a plan to demonstrate before the world the resourcefulness and spirit of the Korean people. Some days later he met those who were to participate in the festival.
Learning in detail about the composition of the delegation and the preparations for its participation in the event, he told them that they would have the honour of making their international debut on behalf of their country, calling for coming back after adding brilliance to the country’s sports and arts and giving wide publicity to their country over the world.
On June 23 the same year he watched the match of basketball players who were to participate in the festival at the then Minchong Gymnasium before he said that the Korean young people were to make their international debut this time and they should take the opportunity to fully demonstrate the lively spirit of liberated Korean youth.
He met again the members of the delegation on July 1 and reiterated the significance of the festival, adding that the sports game was an important event as part of the festival that demonstrates the resourcefulness and spirit of the Korean youth and deepens the friendship and solidarity with other young progressive people the world over. He continued that they could exalt the honour of the country and enhance its prestige when they won the sports matches.
That day, he had a photo taken with them.
Cherishing his love and trust in their mind, the football players took the first place by winning all of the five matches with a sense of team spirit and the basketball players were also crowned with victory in all the matches.
Thus the new democratic Korea emerged itself on the international arena for the first time.
Ko Chol Hwa
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