“Aim High!”

“Aim High!” means what it says that one must cherish far-reaching ideas. It implies a noble and profound idea that national independence should be achieved at any cost by fighting through generations and a new society whose masters are the people should be built.

The idea of “Aim High!” was advanced by Kim Hyong Jik (1894-1926), an outstanding leader of the Korean anti-Japanese national liberation movement.

Kim Hyong Jik was born of a patriotic and poor peasant family at Mangyongdae, Pyongyang, on July 10, 1894.

At that time dark clouds of national ruin hung heavily over Korea due to the aggression of the Japanese imperialism. Japan that fought wars against China (1894-1895) and Russia (1904-1905) to gain control of the Korean peninsula finally occupied it militarily in 1905.

Kim Hyong Jik, who was born and grew up in such circumstances, embarked on the road of struggle to liberate the country in his early days and accomplished the extraordinary achievements for the anti-Japanese national liberation movement in Korea.

After making careful preparations for a long time, he formed on March 23, 1917 the Korean National Association that was the largest anti-Japanese underground revolutionary organization at home and abroad at that time.

The Korean National Association was a secret organization which aimed at achieving national independence and establishing a truly modern state through the efforts of the unified Korean nation. The KNA, with the idea of “Aim High!” as its guiding idea, formed its branches in the vast area and conducted various forms of activities including the enlightenment of the masses and education, thus laying a solid mass foundation of the anti-Japanese movement and giving strong impetus to the anti-Japanese struggle on a nationwide scale.

While seeking a way ahead for the development of the Korean anti-Japanese national liberation movement, Kim Hyong Jik confirmed that a proletarian revolution in which the masses of the people should rise up with arms in hand and fight the enemy was the only correct way to achieve independence of the country and freedom and liberation of the people. He thus made public a policy of shifting the anti-Japanese national liberation movement in Korea from the nationalist movement to a proletarian revolution and clarified the tasks and ways for its implementation.

He selected patriotic young people of proletariat origin and trained them into military cadres, while ideologically remolding the commanding officers and the rank and file of the existing armed organizations so as to turn their ranks into an armed force of workers and peasants that could carry out the proletarian revolution. Along with this, he worked hard to achieve the unity and cohesion of the organizations engaged in the anti-Japanese independence movement. Thanks to his efforts the armed units and the organizations of the anti-Japanese movement, which had been engrossed in a scramble for power, rejecting and jealously regarding each other, were united with one another and worked hand in hand.

Under energetic activities of Kim Hyong Jik, the anti-Japanese national liberation movement in Korea was directed towards the proletarian revolution to realize the interests of the un-propertied masses on the basis of an advanced idea and through armed activities by relying on their strength.

What was important in his revolutionary activities was patriotic and revolutionary education movement.

Looking far ahead into the future of the country, he set up schools wherever he went and devoted himself to the work of training successors to the revolution. He paid particular attention to educating his sons so that they could carry forward the struggle for national liberation from generation to generation.

Kim Hyong Jik, who burnt his heart and soul for national liberation and freedom and emancipation of the people, passed away owing to his sick health from the aftereffects of the terrible torture of the Japanese imperialists and the revolutionary struggle, on June 5, 1926.

On his deathbed he left the following injunction to his sons. 

“I am departing without attaining my aim. But I believe in you. You must not forget that you belong to the country and the people. You must win back your country at all costs even if your bones are broken and your bodies are torn apart.”

The national liberation, his lifelong wish, was brilliantly realized by President Kim Il Sung.

The President created the Juche idea and the Songun idea by embodying the noble idea of “Aim High!” to illumine the path of the Korean revolution and waged the 20-year-long arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, thus accomplishing the historic cause of national liberation and building the people-centred socialism on this land.

The idea of “Aim High!” of Kim Hyong Jik is being carried forward from century to century.

Inheriting the idea and cause of President Kim Il Sung, Chairman Kim Jong Il upheld the banner of Songun, turned Korea into an invincible power that nobody dares challenge and opened up a new era of building a thriving socialist country. At present, under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Un, the country is making rapid progress in the building of a civilized socialist nation where people enjoy happiness to their heart’s content.

Kim Hyong Jik’s idea of “Aim High!” will shine forever.