President Kim Il Sung Wisely led the Campaign against Illiteracy Right after Liberation

Immediately after the liberation of the country, President Kim Il Sung defined the abolition of illiteracy as one of the urgent tasks to be carried out by the people's government organs. And he established a national guidance system whereby people's committees at all levels could carry out the campaign with full responsibility, and wisely led it for its realization.

President Kim Il Sung said.

"The abolition of illiteracy is an important national task in the building of a democratic country and one of the prerequisites for the people to enjoy cultured lives."

True to the intention of the President to abolish illiteracy, the people's government organs decided to launch the "Winter Literacy Campaign in Rural Areas" for four months from December 1st, 1946 to March 31st, 1947, immediately after liberation. They also made a decision to complete the task by conducting the "Campaign Against Illiteracy" from December 1947 to the end of March 1949.

Thanks to the wise leadership and tender care of the President, the campaign against illiteracy in the DPRK was vigorously conducted as a all-people campaign through a well-organized system under the unified guidance of the state.

One day in August 1947, a woman called Ri Kye San in Okdong-ri, So-myon, Phyonggang County, Kangwon Province(then) came to Pyongyang to offer the President crops she had personally harvested. While talking to her, the President got to know that she was illiterate. He said that she could not make an active contribution to the building of a democratic country without literacy because knowledge is power. He also told her about the benefits of literacy one by one and gave her an assignment to wipe out her illiteracy and write a letter to him after three months. He encouraged her to introduce the experience of studying to the whole country and call on all the people to wage the campaign against illiteracy more vigorously.

Later on, she spent three months studying Korean alphabets and post her own handwritten letter to the President. He was satisfied with it and he made the paper introduce her successes and the "Ri Kye San's campaign" conducted vigorously across the country.

On January 13th, 1948, while guiding the then general meeting of Yangcham party cell in Tongnim-ri, Joyang-myon, Kaechon County, South Phyongan Province, he learned that some Party members did not read newspapers properly and told them why they should learn Korean alphabets. And he warmly asked them to study hard and write letters to him by the end of March.

Thanks to his warm love and care for the Korean people who had been subjected to all sorts of humiliation and insult, the campaign against illiteracy in the DPRK made a lot of progress in a short period.

As a result, 98 percent of illiterate people in the DPRK became literate by July 1948, and by March 1949, great successes were achieved in eradicating illiteracy.

In order to consolidate and develop the successes achieved in the campaign, the President took a revolutionary measure to completely abolish the use of Chinese characters in publications and state documents in March 1949.

Under his wise leadership, the abolition of illiteracy was successfully realized in the DPRK in such a short period right after its liberation that Korean people could enjoy a civilized cultural life while fully fulfilling their mission and role as proud masters of building a new country.

A country without illiterates!

With a high sense of pride and self-confidence, Korean people are recollecting the tireless energetic leadership of President Kim Il Sung who devoted his whole life to the people.