KPRA, Worthy of Note in the History of Guerrilla Movement in the World

KPRA, Worthy of Note in the History of Guerrilla Movement in the World

 

The guerrilla movement of mankind against foreign aggressors has a long history and many world-renowned guerrilla units have been recorded in its history. The position of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, which fought against the Japanese imperialist aggressors, is unusually outstanding.

First, the KPRA set the longest record in terms of the period of guerrilla struggle.

The history of guerrilla struggle in many countries, including that in the period of the Second World War, is five years on average. But the KPRA fought guerrilla warfare for over ten years from its founding on April 25, 1932 to the liberation of Korea in 1945. The period can be counted to be 15 years in total when it includes the period of the Korean Revolutionary Army, a preparatory period for the anti-Japanese armed struggle.

Second, the KPRA won by fighting the formidable Japanese imperialists in the worst conditions and situation, in which it had no state to support it in the rear or any foreign aid.

At that time, Korea was under the complete military occupation by the Japanese imperialists. Therefore, there was no state that could support the KPRA, and no assistance could be expected from any other country. It had to obtain all the necessary weapons, ammunition, clothing, food, medicines and so on through battles against the enemy. This provided a complete contrast to the guerrillas that fought during the Second World War under the strong support of the anti-fascist camp. The KPRA also had to overcome the continental cold of 40 degrees below zero and constant shortage of food and clothing.

Third, the KPRA was a special military and political group which carried out political tasks as well as military tasks.

While waging an armed struggle, the KPRA performed the political mission of educating the people and rallying them organizationally to encourage them to turn out in the anti-Japanese resistance. It also conducted its independent intelligence activities. Each soldier of the KPRA had to prepare himself as a skilful political worker as well as a competent military activist. Thanks to their efforts, subordinate organizations of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, a national united front body, mushroomed like a spider net even in Japan where Koreans were forcibly drafted and taken to, not to mention in different parts of Korea and Northeast China. These organizations had their own armed units under different names and made preparations for an all-people resistance. They also organized lawful and unlawful struggles against the Japanese imperialists and conducted intelligence activities in different fields.

Fourth, the KPRA created traditions the Korean people should carry forward for ever.

In the arduous anti-Japanese armed struggle, it cherished as its faith the steadfast spirit of independence, the spirit that one is responsible for carrying out one’s own country’s revolution on one’s own efforts, and created the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude, the revolutionary method of work of solving all problems by relying firmly on the masses and enlisting their strength, and the people-oriented style of work of respecting the people and sharing life and death, weal and woe with them. These are traditions the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea values as its very lifeline and firmly carries forward, and a hallmark of socialist Korea.

It was President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founding father of socialist Korea, who founded and led the KPRA.

He created many Juche-oriented and outstanding guerrilla tactics and methods unheard-of in the world history of war, winning one victory after another in the struggle against the Japanese imperialists, and rallied all the people as one, thus achieving the historic cause of national liberation (August 15, 1945) through an all-people resistance.