Flames of Pochonbo

On June 4, 1937, flames flared up over the night sky of Pochonbo in the northern area of

Korea. Under the commandership of General Kim Il Sung, the Korean People’s Revolutionary

Army (KPRA) made an assault on Pochonbo.

With Kim Il Sung’s signal shot, the KPRA guerrillas rushed into the city to strike the

Japanese police substation and set fire to the sub-county office, fire hall and various other

enemy’s administrative centres. In the streets floodlit by the flames sheets of the “Ten-Point

Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland,” made by the general, and

“proclamation” were pasted, and leaflets and manifestos were scattered.

Shouting “Our army has come!”, “General Kim Il Sung is here!” and “Long live the

independence of Korea!” the citizens suffering from the cruel oppression of the Japanese

aggressors, thronged to the streets. Kim Il Sung waved back to the cheers of the crowd and made

a speech appealing for resistance against Japanese imperialism.

The Battle of Pochonbo was a great event that discouraged the Japanese imperialists who had

been strutting as if they were the lords of Asia.

During their military occupation of Korea (1905-1945) the Japanese imperialists were making

preparations for starting a war of aggression on the China proper by scheming the July 7 Incident

(1937). To this end they intensified the fascist repression of the Korean people more than ever

before, to solidify their rear. Especially they strengthened the guard around the northern border

areas of Korea in an attempt to prevent the advance of the KPRA into the homeland and its

influence on the Korean people at home. The Pochonbo area was surrounded by a vast forest

connected with the area of Changbai, China, the major theatre of the KPRA’s activities. So the

Japanese imperialists set up over 20 police organs and built forts every two km and a new guard

road along the border. It was, therefore, greatly significant that the KPRA broke through this

strict cordon and made a gun shot behind it.

The Japanese army and police officers, who were struck by the attack like a bolt from the

blue, confessed such things as, “We feel as if we had been struck hard on the back of the head,”

and “We feel the shame of watching the haystack we had been carefully building for a thousand

days go up in flames in an instant.” Mass media in Korea and foreign countries including Japan,

China and the former Soviet Union reported the victory of the KPRA in its homeland advance

under such banner headlines as, “Guerrilla Movement into the Northern Area of Korea” and

“Guerrilla Warfare in the Northern Area of Korea.” The whole world was amazed by the fact

that the Korean guerrillas had punished the Japanese imperialists severely on the frontier of

Korea, a small colonized nation in the East.

The flames of Pochonbo heralded the dawn of the liberation of Korea, convincing the Korean

people that Korea was still very much alive and that they were capable of fighting and achieving

the liberation of Korea.

That was the darkest period for the Koreans. Under the brutal fascist oppression and

depredatory atrocities of the Japanese imperialists the Koreans were forced the lot of medieval

slaves. All sorts of evil laws were produced so as to obliterate national characteristics in every

way. Koreans were forcibly banned not only to speak and write in Korean but also to change

their Korean names in Japanese style. The Korean nation literally stood at the crossroads of life

and death.

At that time Kim Il Sung, commander of the KPRA, made an advance into the homeland to

infuse fresh life and courage into the Koreans’ spirit that was dying.

The Battle of Pochonbo encouraged the Korean people greatly. After the battle the

independence movements became activated in the homeland, and the young people were eager to

join the anti-Japanese guerrilla army. Koreans respected Kim Il Sung as their leader and savior

of the national liberation and firmly believed that he would bring the day of liberation of Korea.

On August 15, 1945, Koreans at last liberated their country after defeating the Japanese

imperialists.

Another historic significance of the Battle of Pochonbo was that it demonstrated at home and

abroad a sure will of the Korean revolutionaries, who pioneered the revolution with arms and

would advance it by dint of arms.

The battle was an ordinary raid, which combined the use of small arms and a speech designed

to stir up public feeling. However, that small battle made a great impact on the world because it

showed the truth that the armed imperialists and colonialists should only be fought with arms to

emerge victorious in the revolution for national liberation.

In the initial days when he set out on the road of the revolution, Kim Il Sung discovered the

truth of Songun that the military power guarantees the victory of the revolutionary cause and the

national independence and prosperity. On its basis he set forth the line of the anti-Japanese

armed struggle, and founded the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (April 25, 1932), an

armed force to carry it out. He constantly intensified the KPRA, led the anti-Japanese armed

revolution to victory and finally achieved the liberation of Korea.

Leader Kim Jong Il carried forward the Songun ideology and cause of President Kim Il Sung

and established the Songun politics in all fields of society, thereby safeguarding the socialist

system in the DPRK from the vicious stifling offensive of the imperialist allied forces at the end

of the 20th century and ushering in a new era of building a thriving socialist country.

Now the Songun revolutionary cause of the DPRK is firmly carried out by Kim Jong Un,

supreme leader of the DPRK.