76th Anniversary of Founding of
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Stand with the Korean People to Protect
Their Independence and Achieve
Peace on Korean Peninsula!

Founding of the DPRK is celebrated in Pyongyang, September 9, 1948.

On September 9, the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) will celebrate the 76th anniversary of the founding of their republic in 1948. The legendary architect and leader of the modern Korean nation, Kim Il Sung, led the Korean people to win victory over the brutal Japanese occupiers who mercilessly ruled Korea from 1910 to 1945.

The Korean people, under the leadership of General Kim Il Sung and the Korean People’s Army, liberated their nation on August 15, 1945 in a mighty effort based on relying on themselves against superior weapons and brutal crimes. From the ruins of war they began building a modern democratic state. Throughout the country, People’s Committees were formed and from August to September 1945 the Korean people elected their representatives to a People’s Assembly, which they proclaimed the “Korean People’s Republic” on September 6, 1945.

Due to U.S. imperialist interference in Korean affairs, no sooner had World War II ended than the republic was under attack. The Korean people from north to south, as one nation, had freed themselves from the Japanese occupiers without the presence of any U.S. troops. Despite this, 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 by the patriotic forces who had liberated Korea, 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 celebrated U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, who committed untold crimes in Korea, 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 their stooge 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, Kim Il Sung declared the founding of the DPRK on September 9, 1948 in Pyongyang at a jubilant rally of more than 1 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 to this day.

Kim Il Sung addresses the first session of the DPRK’s Supreme People’s Assembly, September 10, 1948.

The U.S. anti-communist puppet regime of Syngman Rhee clung to power through terror and brutality. After it suffered irreversible losses in the south Korean election of May 1950, the U.S. launched the Korean War to capture the entire Korean Peninsula to use it to threaten aggression against China and the Soviet Union. Having divided Korea at the 38th parallel, the U.S. blamed the DPRK for starting the war. Under the flag of the United Nations, the U.S. recruited 17 other countries, including Canada, to participate in the slaughter of more than 4 million Korean civilians, the use of chemical and biological warfare and the massive destruction of the economy and infrastructure, including razing Pyongyang to the ground. This was done citing the pretext of collective self-defence against an attack by the north on the south.

It is high time the United Nations corrected itself and stopped participating in this fraud that it is entitled to interfere in the affairs of the Korean people on the Korean Peninsula.

The crimes committed by U.S. aggressors and their partners were enormous. They 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.”

Standing firm against the military might of the U.S. empire – known for its use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons worldwide – the DPRK affirmed 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, Canada continues to enforce 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. Despite this, they have never managed to conquer the DPRK or impose a colour revolution there to force regime change. This the imperialists cannot forgive which is why they use their military might and blackmail to isolate the DPRK, calling it a terrorist state and committing crimes against its people, who prevail and thrive despite the most arduous and trying conditions.

Under the current leader of the DPRK Kim Jong Un and the Workers’ Party of Korea, the people of the DPRK continue to strengthen their socialist independent homeland, upholding the DPRK’s independence and right to be. As one, they work collectively to improve the standard of living of the people, to 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 since 1953 has refused to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK and, contrary to the Armistice Agreement it signed at that time, maintains its troops, military bases and even nuclear weapons in the south. Canada enforces the illegal sanction regime against the DPRK and participates in U.S. imperialist war exercises which threaten the DPRK, China and all the countries of the Asia-Pacific.

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.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) 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 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.