The Spirit of Korea Cherished in the People's Hearts Along with the Gun Report of Pochonbo

A good period of nearly ninety years have swiftly passed since the Battle of Pochonbo.

However, the gun report of that day when the enemy had been annihilated still seems to be echoing clearly, which had brought the dawn of national resurrection to the hearts of the trampled Korean people.

The gun report of Pochonbo made by President Kim Il Sung at a time when the country was overcast with the tragic fate of statelessness and even when the mountains and streams of the country were shedding tears of indignation, was the echo of history that had aroused the dying spirit of the nation, Korea, even whose sun and the moon had also been fading away.

President Kim Il Sung said:

"The greatest significance of the Battle of Pochonbo is that it not only convinced our people, who had thought Korea was dead, that this country was still very much alive but also armed them with the faith that they were fully capable of fighting and achieving national independence and liberation."

The late 1930s for the Korean people was such a period of harshness. The Japanese imperialists intensified their fascist suppression and plunder of the Korean people in order to turn the country into a springboard and logistics base for continental aggression and they went on with their frantic moves to obliterate the national character of the Korean people, clamouring about "Oneness of Japan and Korea" and "One and the same ancestry and roots". They even went so far as to deprive Koreans not only of their peculiar manners and customs, but also of their family names, first names and even words and letters. Korea had literally been turned into a veritable hell and the nation had been faced with the crisis of life or death.

Most terrible of all the tragic situations was that the spirit of the Korean nation, the soul of the Korean people was being obliterated and destroyed.

Let us advance to the homeland as soon as possible and breathe life into the soul of the nation suffering a long nightmare, let us show that the Korean nation is alive and that the Korean nation wouldn't give up arms but continue its resistance until Japan is ruined-this was the firm faith in independence and unshakable will of the great leader.

This had brought about the gun report of Pochonbo at 22 o'clock on June 4, 1937, which brought the dawn of national liberation to the Korean people, who had been living in tears of blood under the Japanese imperialist colonial rule.

Korea is not dead! The spirit of Korea is alive! We will defeat the Japanese imperialism at any cost and liberate the country and build a country of people on this land on our own!

This unyielding faith of the great leader, the legendary hero of the anti-Japanese war, which he carried in that historic gun report, still resounds in our hearts.

The significance of the Battle of Pochonbo does not only lie in killing a few Japanese imperialists. It lies in the fact that it not only showed to the Korean people that Korea was not dead but alive, but also they could achieve national independence and liberation when they fight. The Japanese imperialists described the battle as "a heavy blow on the back of the head" and "It's much to be regretted as if the pile of grass gathered in for a thousand days had been burnt down in an instant". The fact that foreign newspapers and news agencies did not spare space on their newspapers in quoting the news of this battle clearly proves its significance.

This clearly tells it.

The spirit of Korea, which had been cherished in the hearts of the people along with the gun report of Pochonbo – was the very faith in independence and sure victory of President Kim Il Sung, the peerlessly great man.