Now the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is demonstrating its dignity and grandeur as a military power.
Meaning of August 25
Since long ago, Korea had been an area of competition by big powers because of its geopolitical importance. As its military strength was weak, it was placed under the Japanese military occupation in the long run. And since the liberation of the country from Japanese colonial rule the DPRK has been under a constant nuclear threat for over half a century by the US which is occupying the southern half of Korea. This reality required the country to direct its primary efforts to strengthening its military capabilities.
President Kim Il Sung set forth the line of armed struggle when he pioneered the Korean revolution. He liberated the country by the armed struggle and safeguarded the security of the nation on the strength of military with upholding the line of putting importance on military. Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission Kim Jong Il, faithful successor to the President, started his first step of leadership of the revolutionary armed forces on August 25, 1960 with his visit to Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army, making public his will to lead the revolution and construction with the revolutionary armed forces as the pillar.
It was his unshakeable faith and will to regard military affairs as the most important of all state affairs, and defend the country, revolution and socialism and vigorously accelerate the overall socialist construction with the revolutionary armed forces as the core, as the main force.
Under his revolutionary leadership of the armed forces, the DPRK achieved one victory after another in the decades-long military confrontation with the US and reliably defended the sovereignty and dignity of the country and nation, rendering a great contribution to global peace and security.
In this context, it can be said that August 25, instituted as the Day of Songun in the DPRK, is a meaningful day, representative of its history of defending its sovereignty and its will to safeguard peace.
Victory of the DPRK and Day of Songun
In February 2005, the year that marked the 45th anniversary of the start of Chairman Kim Jong Il’s leadership of the revolutionary armed forces, the DPRK declared to the world that it possessed nuclear weapons. This was the fruition of the last decision made by the DPRK which had confronted with the aggressive manoeuvres by the US.
To look back, the US resorted to nuclear blackmail against the DPRK during the Korean war (1950-1953), and ever since made every effort to stifle the country by nuclear weapons while staging large-scale nuclear war games every year. Typical examples were the three military showdowns between the DPRK and the US from the late 1960s to mid-1970s (the incident of Pueblo, a US armed spy ship, the incident of EC-121, a US large espionage plane, and the Panmunjom incident) and the nuclear stand-off in the 1990s. These incidents taught the country a serious lesson that so long as the US threatens it with nuclear weapons, it, a nonnuclear state, can never be free from the US nuclear threat. Even though it acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the US nuclear threat did not cease. The arrogance and arbitrariness by the US, which was committing bombing only against nonnuclear countries at will and toppling sovereign states, forced the DPRK to make this crucial decision.
As a result, it conducted an underground nuclear test in October 2006, and possessed powerful nuclear deterrent. In May 2009, it built up the self-defence nuclear deterrent through another succeful nuclear test. In August 2009, soon after the second underground nuclear test, former US president Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang. This demonstrated nothing but the US confessions of its defeat in the showdown with the DPRK. In those days, Western countries such as France, Britain, Germany and Italy commented that Clinton met the DPRK leader with an attitude of a “beggar,” and that it served as an occasion for fanning the DPRK’s sense of self-respect and making it become stronger.
The DPRK’s possession of nuclear weapons is the fruition of the thoroughgoing will and courage of Chairman Kim Jong Il. After the start of his leadership of the revolutionary armed forces, he consolidated the military capabilities of the country to the maximum. In the mid-1990s, he formulated Songun politics as the political mode of socialism, and ensured that precedence was given to the development of the defence industry.
Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is faithfully carrying forward Chairman Kim Jong Il’s revolutionary leadership. He ensured that August 25 was designated as the Day of Songun, and advanced the line of promoting economic construction and building up the nuclear forces simultaneously, thus remarkably strengthening the country’s nuclear forces. Thanks to his energetic leadership, a fundamental change has taken place in the strategic position of the country, and it has become a dignified nuclear power which no formidable enemy may dare attack.
As the DPRK is led by Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, final victory is in store for it.