Kim Jong Un
The Feats Performed by the Great
Victors Will Remain for Ever
Speech
at the Sixth National Conference of War Veterans
July
27, Juche 109 (2020)
Esteemed comrades war veterans,
This is July 27.
The victorious July 27 is the day
when all the people born on this land celebrate with surging emotions the great
victory in the war that is etched in the past history, repeating the word victory.
Greeting the holiday of victory
today, I am seeing you, esteemed war veterans, again, who created the great history,
at this conference. I am so happy that I cannot find words to express my
feelings.
It is an honour for us to have you,
valuable teachers, at this conference.
Greeting the 67th
anniversary of victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War, I, on behalf of
our Workers’ Party of Korea and government, extend warm congratulations to you
participating in this conference and other veterans of the war and people who
performed wartime merits.
I also extend noble respects to the
revolutionary martyrs, both sung and unsung, who sacrificed their precious
lives in the sacred war for achieving the reunification and independence of
their country and the freedom and happiness of their fellow people.
Availing myself of this
opportunity, I offer my noble respects to the martyrs and veterans of the
Chinese People’s Volunteers, who set a genuine example of militant friendship
by helping our people in their revolutionary war at the cost of blood.
Esteemed comrades war veterans,
We cannot think of our country
today without remembering the sweats and blood shed by the generation of the
victors in the war, the Great Spirit they demonstrated and the ennobling
sacrifice of the warriors.
We will remember them for ever.
It is our Party’s mind always to
see you, who performed immortal feats etched in the history of our country, and
give prominence to and feel proud of your heroic lives with dignity. This
conference will prove an important opportunity for demonstrating at home and
abroad the unanimous aspiration and will of our Party and all our people to
hand down more vividly the exploits of the war veterans to posterity and carry
forward the fighting spirit of the 1950s so as to translate the forerunners’
ennobling desires to reality without fail.
The distinguished feats performed
by the victorious wartime generation of the 1950s under the leadership of the
great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung
and the spiritual wealth and assets they bequeathed to the coming generations
are becoming more precious things that cannot be bartered with anything else as
the days go by. The major and profound meaning of our victorious July 27 in
modern history is never confined to the fact that a country and nation defended
their dignity and sovereignty in a fight against the aggressors and created a
military miracle that would shine in the annals of the human history of war.
The great Fatherland Liberation War
was a grim war for defending our Republic in its cradle and the destiny and
future of tens of millions of our people and, at the same time, the first all-out
war between the forces aspiring after independence and the dominationist
forces, between socialism and capitalism, that was fought with the start of the
Cold War after the Second World War. As such, no precedent could be found in
the fierceness and the seriousness of the confrontation. We could not be
compared to the enemy in all aspects including the military hardware and
economic strength as well as population and territory, but in this war our
new-born Republic checked the military offensive by the US imperialists, who
had been boasting of being the “strongest” in the world, and their vassal
forces and defended its territory and sovereignty at the cost of blood. This
was a greatest event that wrote an unprecedented heroic and legendary tale in
the histories of our nation and the world revolution. The July 27 constituted a
turning point in making our country and people that had been reduced to a weak
state and nation take pride of place in history as a heroic country and people
admired by the world and in bringing about violent storms of revolutions for
anti-imperialist independence, socialism and national liberation on the globe.
But for the great July 27, there
would not have been today of socialist Korea demonstrating its glories as the
most dignified and independent powerful country, a people’s country, in the
present-day world and the imperialists’ high-handed attempts to put Asia and
the rest of the world in the sphere under their domination would not have been
checked. It defined the orientation of the new great history of the postwar
socialist revolution and construction, created the proud traditions and wealth
with which our country and people could achieve victory for ever, transformed
the global political landscape and forcefully propelled the trend of the times
towards independence and socialism–this is another great meaningfulness of the
July 27.
The victory in the Fatherland
Liberation War was the victory of the ennobling patriotism and mass heroism of
our service personnel of the Korean People’s Army and people, the victory of
justice and progress over injustice and reaction and the victory of socialism,
the future of mankind, over capitalism, the refuse of history.
The Fatherland Liberation War,
which made one clearly aware of the aggressive and brutal natures of the US
imperialism and never forget them, deprived all the people on this land of
their parents, brothers and sisters and their precious comrades-in-arms and
friends, and brought them disastrous misfortunes and pains. However, thanks to
the legendary feats of the victorious wartime generation, who overcame all
those pains and trials, the great spirit of defending the country and
revolution was created and unparalleled heroism, self-sacrifice and fortitude
became solid as traits unique to our people.
Our victorious wartime generation
is a proud generation that created a new history of carrying forward the Korean
revolution by dedicating their blood and lives and developed the revolutionary
spirit of Paektu into an all-people ideological spirit. Thanks to the service
personnel, who defended every inch of their motherland at the cost of blood
with the steely faith that they would surely emerge victorious as long as they
were led by Comrade Kim Il Sung,
and to the people on the home front, who dedicated their all to the victory in
the war, the spirit of unity around the leader, the indefatigable spirit of
fighting the enemy to the death and the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance
of making weapons with bare hands could be displayed highly as a mettle of
heroic Korea. That is
why our Party holds in high esteem and give prominence to the victorious
wartime generation, who brought about the victory at the cost of blood amid the
flames of the war, as a proud generation who laid a cornerstone for carrying
forward our revolutionary traditions.
They
are also heroes who, true to the Party’s call, established a socialist system
and laid the foundations of an independent, powerful country in the spirit of
Chollima, and great teachers who implanted an ennobling spirit and soul in the
hearts of the rising generations. In the days when they played the key roles in
all sectors, our socialist construction witnessed the fastest eye-opening
advance and upsurge, and the tales of their feats have served as sustenance and
an excellent textbook of revolutionary life and outlook on life for the peacetime
generations who have not undergone the experience of a war.
They, indeed, are excellent revolutionaries and patriots and
invaluable treasures of our revolution that, though they themselves experienced
trials, have devoted their all to the rising generations by invariably and
faithfully supporting the Party and the leader in the whole course, beginning
with the grim war days to the days of postwar reconstruction and socialist
construction. Our Party regards it as a source of great pride and honour to
have such revolutionary forerunners as you, who have cherished an ennobling
view on the rising generation and on the revolution, and gives prominence to
the victorious wartime generation as models whom everyone should learn from for
all ages.
Esteemed
comrades war veterans,
The
history of nearly 70 years after the war cannot be called peacetime as a fierce
confrontation with the enemy has continued, and the threat and pressure by the
imperialists to invade and plunder our state have increased moment by moment.
With
the spirit and will of victory brought about by the immortal July 27, we chose
on our own accord the arduous road of strengthening the national power, looking
towards a bright future of our state, and have never changed our choice,
tightening our belts, when others were vying with one another for the pursuit
of immediate “prosperity.”
As
we must have an absolute strength with which to prevent and deter the war itself
so as not to experience once again the pains and sufferings of the war in the
1950s, we have advanced along the road of self-development toward a nuclear
state by braving all pressures and challenges and overcoming unprecedented
adversity which would have brought others to their knees one hundred times. And
now we have become able to reliably defend ourselves against any form of
high-intensity pressure and military threat by imperialist reactionaries and
other hostile forces.
War
is an armed clash which can be unleashed only against a weak one.
None
can now make little of us.
We
will not allow others to look down upon us and, if they do so, make them pay
dearly.
Thanks
to our reliable and effective self-defence nuclear deterrence, the word war
would no longer exist on this land, and the security and future of our state
will be guaranteed for ever.
We
celebrate July 27 every year from one generation to the next, but the day of
this year, when our state has secured the strategic position the world cannot
ignore but recognize, brings us a special emotion, and the significance of the
victory in the war and the exploits of performed by the war veterans have
become more valuable and prideful.
Comrades,
A long time has passed and many
things have changed since the gunshots of the war ended, but the ennobling
spirit the war martyrs and veterans displayed is still here, encouraging our
people to a renewed struggle.
In the faces of you, war veterans,
we are now visualizing the images of all the comrades-in-arms who failed to
come back from the front in those grim years and the unforgettable martyrs who
devoted themselves for socialist construction, and are girding ourselves to
make redoubled efforts so as to be proud of ourselves before them. Just as you
wrote a new chapter in the history of building a prosperous country by
brilliantly carrying forward the traditions of the anti-Japanese struggle, the
new generations of today will achieve the final victory of socialism of our own
style without fail by inheriting your spirit.
The history of the victorious war
teaches us the iron truth that a people armed with a great spirit can work a
great miracle.
By etching the spirit in the 1950s
in the minds of all the service personnel and people in golden letters, our
Party will ensure that every one of them becomes a fighter who remains
unchanged in any adversities and leads the life of artists of fresh miracles
and victories so that they have no feeling of shame in front of the martyrs and
war veterans.
We have never forgotten your
rancour that you had to turn back in bitter tears after burying your fallen
comrades-in-arms on the shore of the Raktong near the South Sea of Korea owing
to a shortage of arms. Always remembering the truth that only when we have our
sovereignty and right to existence guaranteed, can we achieve and promote
happiness and in order to defend the destiny of our state and people, we must
have strong power of our own, we will not halt even a moment on the road of
building up the most powerful defence capabilities which no one would dare to
challenge.
Comrades,
What the fighters of the war
pictured in their minds so dearly in the so many days and nights of the
do-or-die battles must have been a beautiful people’s paradise which would be
built in the 3 000-ri land. Our Party
will strive with redoubled courage to realize the forerunners’ dream and ideal
of a powerful country without fail and make our people the happiest in the
world.
All the people should glorify their
lives as victors on the road of making their country prosperous, viewing
themselves in the light of the lives of the victorious wartime generation. The
present conditions and situation are difficult, but they are nothing when
compared to those during the war days.
Our Party will make sure that all
officials, Party members and other working people achieve proud victories on
all fronts of socialist construction by holding up the slogan “Let us live and
struggle in the spirit of the great defenders of the country!”
It will also prepare all the
service personnel to be versatile, a-match-for-a-hundred combatants who have
acquired the indomitable revolutionary spirit, valiant militant mettle and
lofty patriotism cherished by the war veterans as part of their mental
qualities and are well-versed in our style of warfare.
The history of victorious war hands
down to posterity the feats of numerous heroes including Ri Su Bok, Jo Kun Sil
and Kang Ho Yong in connection with the word youth. The Party will bring up all young people to be hot-blooded
loyal persons and staunch revolutionaries who take the Party and country into
account first and are ready to dedicate themselves for the sake of society and
the collective like those heroes who unhesitatingly dedicated their only lives
for the one and only country in the face of death.
In this way, it can ensure that our
great traditions of our ideology and system you defended at the cost of your
blood and our victory is carried forward from one generation to the next.
It will ensure that the climate of
respecting, holding up and according preferential treatment to war veterans and
other forerunners in the revolution is created across society and becomes an
unshakable national trait.
Our Party will look after you, war
veterans, with all sincerity and hold full responsibility for your health and
life so that you can become more vigorous even though you are getting older and
continue to add brilliance to your glorious life.
It will make sure that Party
organizations, government bodies, working people’s organizations at all levels
and all the people regard it as part of their noble obligation and duty to take
good care of war veterans as they would do their own parents, and do all they
can do for them.
Although time passes and one
generation is replaced by another, the heroic fighting spirit and undying feats
of the victorious wartime generation will boil the red blood of our descendants
harder for all eternity and the Great Spirit and feats will live for ever with
the victorious advance of our revolution.
Esteemed comrade veterans,
You, staunch war veterans, defeated
the US imperialists that had boasted of being the “strongest” in the world and
the armies of their followers and weathered those severe years and all sorts of
hardships; but as the saying goes that time and tide wait for no man, many of
the veterans have passed away and the hair of you, present here, has turned
gray. Seeing this, I feel sorry and regretful that time flies.
Comrades war veterans, I wish and
wish you good health.
I sincerely request the respected
war veterans across the country to lead a long life in good health, serving as
the eternal source of our strength and spiritual mainstay.
Long live the great July 27
victory!
