The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) in his teens embarked on a 250-mile journey with a resolve to win back Korea’s independence from Japan.
Earlier, in March 1923, he already took a 250-mile trip from Badaogou, a mountain village in northeast China, to Mangyongdae in Korea. Back home, he was studying at Changdok School in what is now Chilgol-dong, Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang. One day he received the sad news that his father was again arrested by Japanese police.
His father Kim Hyong Jik was an outstanding leader of Korea’s anti-Japanese national liberation movement. Following his intention, Kim Il Sung made up his mind to devote himself to the fight for national independence and set out on a 250-mile journey back to Badaogou on January 22, 1925.
Under the Japanese military occupation (1905-1945) Koreans were deprived of their language, to say nothing of their territory and sovereignty, and forced to live a life of colonial slaves. With a determination to put an end to the tragedy of national ruin, Kim Il Sung resolutely embarked on the road to the revolutionary struggle leaving his beloved homeland.
A fortnight after leaving Mangyongdae, he arrived at Phophyong, a small border village adjacent to the Amnok River. With a broken heart, he stood on the snow-covered river bank and looked back to the homeland.
Recalling that bitter emotion, he wrote in his reminiscences With the Century :
“But I hesitated again, obsessed by the uncertainty of whether I would ever cross back to my homeland to which I was going to bid farewell.
“I stepped back and picked up a pebble from the river bank, holding it firmly in my hand.
“I wished to take anything that could be a token and memento of my motherland and to keep it as a treasure.”
He crossed the river with a firm resolve to come back home without fail after beating down the Japanese imperialists though he was now leaving his homeland with a bitter heart.
True to his resolve, he waged a successful 20-year-long anti-Japanese revolutionary war and finally achieved the historic cause of Korea’s liberation on August 15, 1945.
To honour his undying exploits, the Korean people erected statues of him and monuments in different places along the route of his journey.
Many schoolchildren undertake a study tour, following the route of the 250-mile Journey for National Liberation.
Jo Myong Sun
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