Pyongyang, April 24 (KCNA) -- A national meeting took place here Sunday to mark the 84th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the revolutionary armed forces of the Workers' Party of Korea.
Present there were Kim Yong Nam, Hwang Pyong So and Pak Pong Ju and other leading officials of the party, state and army, the chairperson of a friendly party, members of the party central leadership organ in Pyongyang, officials of the party and armed forces organs, ministries and national institutions, service personnel of the KPA and the Korean People's Internal Security Forces, officials of institutions and industrial establishments here, persons of merits, the chief of the Pyongyang mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front and overseas Koreans.

Present there on invitation were foreign diplomatic envoys and military attaches in foreign embassies here.

KPA Vice Marshal Ri Myong Su, chief of the General Staff of the KPA, made a report in which he said:

The Korean People's Revolutionary Army (KPRA), the first revolutionary armed forces of Juche type, was founded on April 25, Juche 21 (1932). Therefore, the Korean people could have the genuine revolutionary army led by the outstanding leader for the first time in history and this marked the starting point of the glorious history of the Korean revolution which was pioneered and has advanced victoriously by dint of the arms.

President Kim Il Sung brought up the KPRA to be a powerful driving force of the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle and core force of the Songun revolution in the flames of the anti-Japanese revolution and defeated the brigandish Japanese imperialists who made desperate efforts styling themselves the "leader" of Asia and thus accomplished the historical cause of the country's liberation.

Despite the complicated situation of building a new country after the liberation, he successfully realized the cause of building the regular armed forces in a short span of time and led to victory the great Fatherland Liberation War while holding fast to the arms of Songun in order to shatter the myth of "mightiness" of the U.S. imperialists who boasted of a war history of aggression that lasted more than a century and thus created the myth of war victory in the 20th century.

He consistently adhered to the idea of attaching importance to the arms and the principle of giving priority to the military affairs during the whole period of the revolutionary leadership, developed the KPA into the army of the party that thoroughly established the party's monolithic ideological system and into the powerful revolutionary armed forces all members of which were trained to be cadres and which were put on a modern basis, and turned the DPRK into an impregnable fortress and bulwark of independence by successfully putting all the people under arms and turning the whole country into a fortress.

The cause of army-building of Juche started on Mt. Paektu was developed in depth onto a new stage thanks to the outstanding Songun revolutionary guidance of leader Kim Jong Il.

Thanks to his outstanding and tested leadership, the KPA has grown stronger in terms of thought and faith guided by the Juche idea and Songun idea and the powerful revolutionary Paektusan army firmly armed with Korean-style strategy and tactics and war methods and equipped with modern offensive and defensive means.

The KPA has greeted the golden age of bolstering up the revolutionary armed forces as they are led by Marshal Kim Jong Un.

Once the weak colonial nation oppressed by the aggressors with its sovereignty deprived by the aggressors due to the weak arms has developed into the world-level military power and the nuclear power of Juche that no one dares provoke, striking terror into the imperialist reactionaries.

The U.S. imperialists introduced strategic weapons into south Korea in a bid to stage frantic joint military drills against the DPRK and brought the clouds of a nuclear war to hang over Korea, escalating the situation to an extreme phase.

If the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet warmongers persistently stage nuclear provocation aimed to hurt the supreme leadership of the revolution despite the repeated warnings of the DPRK, the powerful revolutionary Paektusan army will launch a preemptive strike of severest punishment in the sky, land, seas and underwater without any restriction and without any warning and prior notice.

The enemies have to clearly understand that the strike of the Korean People's Army which regards it as the greatest mission to devotedly safeguard the leader knows no mercy and this will be continued nonstop until the historic cause of national reunification is accomplished and the root cause of aggression and evil is totally eliminated.