75th Anniversary of Founding of
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Stand with the Korean People to Achieve Peace and National Reunification
September 9 marks the Jubilee 75th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1948 by Kim Il Sung, the legendary architect and leader of the modern Korean nation. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sends its greetings to Comrade Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, President of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander, Armed Forces of the DPRK; to the Workers’ Party of Korea; and to the government and the people of the DPRK on this joyous occasion. CPC(M-L) wishes the DPRK every success in its work to secure peace and prosperity for their nation and to put an end to more than 70 years of U.S.-engineered division, tension and strife on the Korean Peninsula.
The Korean people, under the leadership of General Kim Il Sung and the Korean People’s Army, liberated their nation on August 15, 1945 after decades of struggle against the Japanese occupiers (1910-1945). From the ruins of war they began building a modern democratic state. Throughout the country, People’s Committees were formed and in August to September 1945 the Korean people elected their representatives to a People’s Assembly, which proclaimed the “Korean People’s Republic” on September 6, 1945.
Due to U.S. imperialist interference in Korean affairs no sooner WWII had ended than the republic was under immediate attack. Even though the Korean people freed themselves from the Japanese occupiers without the presence of any U.S. troops, the U.S. included a term in the surrender signed by Japan on September 2, 1945 that the Korean Peninsula would be divided along the 38th parallel and that the defeated Japanese military in Korea would surrender to U.S. forces in the south, not to the Korean liberators. On September 8, 1945, two days after the declaration of the republic, thousands of U.S. troops began to arrive in Korea. The new occupiers declared the Korean People’s Republic illegal and began to crush the People’s Committees by force. In the words of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, Korea was to be an “anti-communist bulwark.”
Over the next three bloody years, through a campaign of mass terror and brutality, the illegal U.S. Military Government in Korea and their local agents criminalized, rounded up, tortured, imprisoned and murdered hundreds of thousands of suspected communists, “leftists” and other patriots who refused to submit to U.S. dictate.
The U.S. organized a fraudulent “free and fair” election in May 1948, which was boycotted en masse by the Korean people. The U.S. installed Syngman Rhee as President of the Republic of Korea by force of arms in July 1948.
In response to this crime by the U.S. against the Korean people and their drive for independence and reunification, Kim Il Sung declared the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on September 9, 1948 in Pyongyang at a jubilant rally of more than one million people. The founding of the DPRK guaranteed the Korean people the revolutionary base from which their drive for reunification and self-determination would continue as it has done to this day.
The U.S. anti-communist puppet regime of Syngman Rhee clung to power through terror and brutality. It suffered irreversible losses in the south Korean election of May 1950. The U.S. then launched the Korean war to capture the Korean Peninsula and use it to threaten aggression against China and the Soviet Union. More than 4 million Korean civilians were killed and massive destruction caused to the economy and infrastructure. The United States and 17 other countries, including Canada, took part in this war of aggression against the Korean nation under the fig-leaf of the UN flag on the false pretext of collective self-defence against an attack by the north on the south.
The U.S. aggressors committed crimes against the peace, crimes against humanity and untold war crimes, including massacres of civilians, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons and the fire-bombing of various northern cities, which resulted in many civilian casualties. Though still in its infancy, the DPRK with the help of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, organized the Korean people and defeated the U.S. in the war and forced it to sign the Korean Armistice Agreement, thus defending the sovereignty and honour of the Korean nation.
Kim Il Sung, President of the DPRK, said at the time: “The victory of our people in the Korean War was a victory of the revolutionary people over the imperialist forces, a victory of the revolutionary army over the aggressive forces of imperialism. It proved that the people who rise up for freedom, independence and progress, taking their destiny into their own hands under the leadership of a Marxist-Leninist party, will never be conquered by any imperialist forces of aggression. It also exposed the vulnerability and corruptness of U.S. imperialism, demonstrating to the oppressed nations of the world that U.S. imperialism is by no means an unconquerable enemy and that they too can definitely fight and defeat it.”
It is important to point out that the DPRK has never committed an act of aggression against another country. The Korean War, which engulfed the entire Korean Peninsula, was provoked by the U.S. and its puppet regime in the south. Standing firm against the might of the U.S. military empire – known for its use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons worldwide – the DPRK affirms not only its right to be, but the right of all nations and peoples to self-determination and peace. For this internationalist spirit, the DPRK is justly admired by all justice- and peace-loving people in Canada and the world.
Today, the DPRK stands proudly second to none in the family of nations. Despite the brutal racist and illegal sanctions that the U.S. imposed on the DPRK during the Korean War, which have increased in intensity with successive U.S. imperialist administrations, the DPRK prevails and thrives despite the most arduous and trying conditions.
Under the leadership of Kim Jong Un and the Workers’ Party of Korea, the entire people of the DPRK have been mobilized to strengthen their socialist independent economy, and uphold the DPRK’s independence and right to be. As one, they work collectively to improve the standard of living of the people, deepen and widen the people’s culture, and maintain the nation’s dignity.
The DPRK has also built its self-defence capacity to safeguard its independence from the constant military threats and nuclear blackmail of the U.S. imperialist warmongers. While the DPRK today has diplomatic and trade relations with the majority of countries in the world, Canada is integrated into the U.S. imperialist agenda which refuses to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK and contrary to the Armistice Agreement it signed maintains its troops, military bases and even nuclear weapons in the south. It enforces the illegal sanction regime against the DPRK and participates in U.S. imperialist war exercises which threaten the DPRK.
Canadians want Canada to be a force for peace in the world. Normalizing relations with the DPRK would enhance peace on the Korean Peninsula as well as contribute to peace in the world.
CPC(M-L) treasures the meeting between its founder and leader Comrade Hardial Bains and President Kim Il Sung in February 1994 just before this legendary leader of the Korean people passed away. Canadian communists will always stand with the people of the DPRK and the Workers’ Party of Korea and support their efforts to secure peace on the Korean Peninsula, justice, prosperity, and the reunification of the Korean nation by their own efforts.
On the occasion of the splendid 75th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK, CPC(M-L) calls on the Canadian people to stand with the people of the DPRK for their right to be. The Canadian state and its governments must abandon their hostile anti-communist policies toward the DPRK and normalize relations with that country for mutual benefit and for peace.
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