editorial

The mass heroism and self-sacrificing spirit displayed by the soldiers of the Korean People's Army during the Fatherland Liberation War were unprecedented in the world history of war.

At the age of 18, Hero Ri Su Bok died after enabling his unit to countercharge by blocking the enemy pillbox with his chest.

In the course of repelling enemy attack several times, Hero Jo Kun Sil was severely wounded in arms and legs to become unable to keep himself steady. Then he pressed the trigger of his heavy machine-gun with his jaw to mow down the enemy. He fought heroically till the end of his life, killing or wounding more than 450 enemy troops and making a great contribution to defending the height.

During a battle, Hero Kang Ho Yong became unable to move his body because of serious injuries in both his legs and arms. But with all the strength he could muster, he rolled down into an enemy group with a hand grenade between his teeth, thus inflicting wholesale deaths upon them.

The battle of Kachil Peak during the defence of Height 1211 wrote a special chapter in the history of the Fatherland Liberation War for the fierceness.

In the battle the soldiers of the KPA took an oath to fly the flag of the DPRK on the height without fail and charged. When the flag bearers fell, the following soldiers took over the flag. At last the 12th flag bearer put up on the height the national flag stained with the blood of comrades-in-arms.

While repulsing the enemy’s persistent attack several times to defend a height, Hero Han Kye Ryol encouraged his comrades-in-arms, saying, “The height of the country is mine. I cannot retreat from it,” thus crushing the enemy attack and defending the height heroically. Then the “My Height” movement was launched by all frontline units and subunits.

When enemy tanks went up the height, Heroine Jo Sun Ok, a nurse, destroyed the first tank by hurling a bundle of grenades and when she became unable to move because of excessive bleeding, she, with all the strength she could muster, threw herself under another tank following behind the first one with a bundle of grenades to destroy it. And An Yong Ae, another nurse heroine, sacrificed herself to save a wounded soldier by covering him with her body from enemy strafing. Many other KPA soldiers displayed matchless mass heroism in all fierce battles, terrifying the aggressors.

Their heroic self-sacrificing spirit was based on their absolute trust in President Kim Il Sung and their ardent patriotism.

They could not forget the five years of their life after Kim Il Sung liberated Korea by defeating the Japanese imperialists. In those years, they gathered rich harvest from their land distributed to them for the first time in their life or worked as masters of factories. During the Japanese imperialists’ military occupation of Korea, they had been subjected to colonial slavery. So they valued the five years of leading a new worthwhile life as masters of the country while enjoying genuine human rights and they were determined never to live as slaves of the aggressors again. That is why they displayed matchless bravery in fierce battles to defend the country more precious than their lives.

The iron faith that they would surely win victory as they were led by the President, an ever-victorious and iron-willed brilliant commander, trained the KPA soldiers into indomitable heroes and heroines.

During the war the people in the rear also fought as bravely as the soldiers of the KPA. Farmers produced and supplied grain by ploughing fields and sowing seeds there despite the heavy bombing the enemy carried out scores of times a day, and other people rebuilt the damaged bridges and transport routes or treated wounded KPA soldiers. To send more weapons, ammunition and hand grenades to the soldiers fighting on heights, the workers in the munitions industry sector kept operating lathes with bruised hands in tunnels where water dripped from the ceilings.

In different parts of the country the people’s guerrilla units, youth guards and children’s guards destroyed railways, roads and the enemy’s magazines and communications means and fought to repulse the aggressors who occupied their native places so as to liberate towns and villages.

The myth of the “mightiness” of US imperialism was completely shattered and the aggressors could not escape a disgraceful defeat in the war with such people with the indomitable spirit.