The Korean army

Article by Kim Hvon Thae, Juche 87 (1998)

Today, the security of our country and people is firmly guaranteed by the powerful armed forces. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has stout­ly defended its gains for the past 50 years since it was founded. This owes to its self-defensive national defense capacities, the invincible revolutionary armed forces. The DPRK's revolutionary armed forces, which have reliably defended the security of our socialist country and people, were founded by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and developed and strengthened under his wise guidance. The great leader set out on the road of revolution with a lofty aim of liberating the country at a time when the country was reduced to a colony of the Japanese imperialists and her people were groaning in the miser­able status of a ruined nation. He put forth the line of armed struggle that the armed Japanese imperialists must be smashed by arms and founded the Korean Peo­ple's Revolutionary Army on April 25, Juche 21 (1932). The KPRA, the first revolutionary armed forces of Korea, waged a bloody guerrilla warfare against the strong Japanese imperialists armed to the teeth without backing from a regular army or a state. During the arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary war, the great leader built up the armed forces firmly and led all the operations and battles to victory with his out­standing art of command. He finally accomplished the historic cause of national liberation in August Juche 34 (1945). The Korean people who rose in the building of a new democratic state in the liberated country were faced with serious threat following the US imperialists' occu­pation of south Korea and their scheme to invade the DPRK. The great leader advanced the line of building the regular armed forces to firmly defend new Korea and led the work for its realization. He established the Pyongyang Institute and security officers training centers where he trained fine military cadres and immediately transformed the KPRA into the Korean People's Army, the modern regular armed forces. The invincible might of the revolutionary armed forces which had defended the freedom and indepen­dence of the country was fully demonstrated in the Korean war.The war unleashed by the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique in June Juche 39 (1950) was an aggressive war to topple the young DPRK in its cra­dle. At the critical moment when the destiny of the coun­try was at risk, the great leader put forward the out­standing and original strategic and tactical policies and Juche-oriented war methods and led the People's Army and people to victory through his unusual art of com­mand. In those days he went to the forefronts, including Height 1211, where bullets rained, to teach unique war methods and aroused the KPA soldiers, showing pater­nal love for them. Thanks to the heroic struggle of the People's Army and the people, the three-year-long Korean war ended in victory for the DPRK. However, the US imperialists and their stooges continued their schemes to invade the DPRK. In order to cope with the resultant situation, the great leader put forward the self-defensive military line, the main content of which was the conversion of the whole army into a cadre army and its modernization, the arming of the entire people and the fortification of the whole country, and the policy for simultaneously carrying on economic construction and defense building. His on-the-spot guidance to People's Army units and outposts strengthened the People's Army into an invinci­ble army. In addition, he ensured that powerful national defense bases were created and all-people defensive sys­tem was firmly established, turning the whole country into an impregnable fortress. As a result, our revolutionary armed forces were able to take drastic measures against the enemy's continued provocative acts and to defend the security of the coun­try and people with flying colours. The Korean People's Army has become an invincible, strong army capable more than ever of defending the security of the DPRK since it has the respected General Kim Jong II at its top position. The respected General, who has brilliantly inherited the great leader's Juche-based idea of army-building, set forth an outstanding line of modeling the whole army after the Juche idea and has developed and strength­ened the KPA into the army of the leader and the Party. In recent years when the imperialists have perpetrat­ed the maneuvers to isolate and suffocate socialist Korea more viciously than ever before he made a series of visits to outposts and units of the KPA in the fore­fronts to instill in the minds of soldiers faith in victory and teach them war methods, showing warm paternal affection to them. Our revolutionary armed forces, which have been developing under the wings of the great brilliant commander, have smashed the war provocative acts of the imperialists at every step and firmly defended the DPRK. Today, the Korean people regard it as a great pride to have the invincible revolutionary armed forces led by the respected supreme commander General Kim Jong Il.