editorial

The Fatherland Liberation War in the 1950s was the fiercest war after the Second World War. The United States hurled into the Korean front its large armed forces, the troops of its satellite states and latest hardware and roared it would use even A-bombs.

In this war, which can be said to be a showdown between a rifle and an atomic bomb, the DPRK people and the Korean People’s Army defeated the US, which boasted of being the “strongest” in the world, thus creating miracles unprecedented in the world history of wars.

The victory in the war was the triumph of the Juche-oriented military strategy and ideas, original art of war and adroit strategy and tactics of President Kim Il Sung, an ever-victorious and iron-willed brilliant commander and outstanding military strategist.

When the US imperialists started the war of aggression on June 25 1950, he delivered a speech at the emergency meeting of the DPRK Cabinet to order the Korean People’s Army to beat off the enemy’s invasion and switch over to an immediate and decisive counterattack in order to wipe out the armed aggressors.

According to the world history of wars until then, it was a widely accepted usage even for a powerful nation to retreat for a certain period when it came under preemptive attack.

With his extraordinary insight, the President calculated that it would take at least over a month for the US to bring a large number of troops from its mainland to Korea and scientifically analysed the vulnerability of the US imperialist aggressor forces comprised of imperialist mercenaries, the incomparable political and ideological superiority of the KPA and the future trend of development of situation. On this basis, he put forward the strategy and tactics for putting the enemy under control and taking the initiative in the war.

As a result, the brave KPA soldiers liberated Seoul, the stronghold of the enemy, on June 28, three days after the start of the counterattack.

With his unique military tactics and outstanding art of command, he neutralized the enemy’s numerical and technical superiority.

The US imperialists suffered defeat repeatedly. The battle of Osan served as a prelude to their tragic retreat and their defense line along the Kum River, which they called a “line of no retreat” and “last defense line”, crumbled. And in the battle to liberate Taejon, the KPA destroyed the US 24th Infantry Division which they boasted of as an “invincible division” and a KPA soldier captured its commander Dean. The miracles were also performed at sea. The KPA sailors sank a heavy cruiser of the US Navy, which had been called a “moving island in the sea”, into the waters off Jumunjin with four torpedo boats. The brave KPA pilots downed latest US fighters and bombers, including the B-29 strategic bomber, the so-called flying fortress.

The US aggressors were astonished by various tactics of the KPA, which could not be found in any countries’ books on strategy, including the tunnel warfare suited to the actual conditions of the mountainous country, anti-aircraft and anti-tank team movements and activities of snipers’ teams, mobile anti-aircraft artillery batteries and direct-firing gun teams.

Kim Il Sung went to the front line at the risk of his life to supervise military operations and lead the people and soldiers to victory with his ever-victorious strategies and tactics.

Saying he should go to wherever soldiers were, he continued his frontline-bound journey in showers of bullets and shells and went to factories and farms for increased wartime production.

Thanks to his outstanding military strategy and ideas, original art of war, protean tactics and love for and trust in the people and soldiers, the DPRK could destroy the formidable imperialist enemy armed with modern weapons and won a great victory in the fierce Fatherland Liberation War.