Research

The Turning Point Of Life

 2025.10.13.

In the life of President Kim Il Sung were several critical moments that had to be overcome by courage, one of which was when he dropped out of Yuwen Middle School in Jilin.

The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung said:

"I think it was a turning point in my life when I left Yuwen School and went among the masses. It was at this time that my underground activities and my new life as a career revolutionary started."

The President waged a struggle in Jilin prison and keenly felt that the only way to overthrow the Japanese imperialists and achieve the independence of Korea was to wage an armed struggle and fight against the armed enemy with arms.

In order to do that, he had to drop out of Yuwen Middle School in Jilin.

President Kim Il Sung left Jilin prison in the early May 1930 and thought very deep.

What caught his mind at that time was that he failed to keep his father's will to finish his study at any cost that he left at the last moment before passing away.

At that time, some memories of his father came across his mind: his image of seeing him off to the 1, 000-ri Journey for Learning in the heart of the severe winter and teaching him the history and geography of Korea when he came back home from school, saying that the Koreans should know Korea well. He was also pressed with the pathetically sincere efforts of his mother, who had toiled and moiled doing the washing and sewing for others over his monthly school expenses for 3 years true to the will of her husband and the reproachful looks of many people. Moreover, many comrades in Jilin proposed that the President complete his secondary school study and tried their best to realize his reinstatement.

But the President, who was more conscious of the fact that the deprived country and the groaning of the people in distress were calling for him to the great sacred war of the anti-Japanese armed struggle as soon as possible, could make a firm decision to drop out of Yuwen Middle School in Jilin. It was due to the request of Mother Kang Pan Sok who had always been of strength and will to him.

He was so aware of the reason why his mother was firmly supporting him, despite of all the hardships of taking care of his younger brothers all alone in the foreign country.

Even when he dropped out of Hwasonguisuk School, it was his mother who sent him to Jilin in support of him, and he believed that whatever might happen like giving up the middle school or college study half-way, she would invariably back him up if it was for the revolution and for the country.

Bearing such mission and trust in mind, the President dropped out of Yuwen Middle School in Jilin and held a Kalun meeting in a little more than two months after that, brightly indicated the road ahead of the Korean revolution, formed the first party organization and the Korean Revolutionary Army and embarked on a full-scale struggle.

President Kim Il Sung dropped out of middle school and went among the people to start his professional revolutionary activities. This marked an important turning point in his life of devotion to the country and people.