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Dear Pyongyang citizens and all other people across the country and officers and men of the Korean People’s Army, Today at the square which was filled 80 years ago with the delight of tens of millions of the people in regaining their country, we are feeling again the emotion of the day. Today’s celebration that makes us recall with deep emotion the birth of our state and the sacred course of its development constitutes an affirmation of the times and a proud review of the immortal spirit that brought about a turn in the people’s destiny and the history of decades-long resistance as well as of how the 80-year-long history of the new Korea could reach the height of dignity and honour. Availing myself of this meaningful opportunity, I, on behalf of all the descendants who have led a worthwhile life on the land of freedom and prosperity bequeathed to them by the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters and patriotic martyrs, pay ennobling tribute to the fighters and martyrs for devoting their all for the sacred struggle to achieve the independence and prosperity of the country. My warm greetings go to the people across the country and all the officers and men of our armed forces who are opening a new era of prosperity and development by devoting ardent affection and inexhaustible wisdom for their precious and sacred country. And recalling with deep reverence the militant feats of the officers and men of the Red Army who shed their blood in the liberation cause of our people, I pay noble tribute to the martyrs. I also extend warm greetings toComradeVladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the Russian Federation,ComradeVyacheslav Volodin and other distinguished Russian guests who are on a visit to our country, and other dear Russian comrades-in-arms and fraternal people who are celebrating our people’s liberation day as a holiday common to the two countries with deep trust and feelings of friendship. August 15, 1945 was for the Korean people a starting point of the turn of their destiny, when they regained the independent dignity that is as precious as their life itself, and is a day of great victory. Over the past centuries many countries and nations experienced tragic plight owing to the powers’ wars of conquest that swept the world, but none was so completely trampled down and plundered as our country in its days of Japanese imperialist colonial rule. The country’s liberation checked the history of national ruin, which left the greatest disgrace in its history spanning five thousand years and was filled with its people’s grudge and grief. We celebrate the country’s liberation not only as an auspicious event that brought a turn from a colony to an independent state but also as a laudable event to be remembered with reverence from one generation to the next. It is because it is associated with the priceless soul and sacrifices. The days of Japanese imperialist colonial rule are recorded in history not only as days of distress of the Korean people but also as days of a bloody resistance struggle of the people, who are strong in patriotism and self-respect and never compromise with injustice. The Japanese imperialists inflicted tyranny and violence unprecedented in human history in an attempt to stamp out even the soul and spirit of Korea, but they could not break its people’s steadfast spirit for independence; the patriotic anti-Japanese struggle of the people to win back their national sovereignty at the cost of their lives did not stop even a moment. The armed struggle of their fine sons and daughters against the militarist Japan that emerged as a power in Asia was a death-defying, bloody resistance they fought shouldering the destiny of their country and their descendants and overcoming severe ordeals and painful sacrifices; and the anti-Japanese revolutionary feats they performed from the consistent independent stand are clear proof of the course the Korean people pioneered to achieve independence by their own efforts. It is in no way an accidental event in the course of history, but the victory won by the all-people anti-Japanese forces that fought unto death in the spirit of independence. Herein lies the revolutionary character and political importance of our cause of liberation. With the day of August 15, our people regained all that they had lost–their sovereignty, territory, resources, history and culture–and secured all possibilities for achieving their freedom and carving out their destiny, thus embarking with the dignity befitting masters on the road of their great pioneering cause of democratic development and wellbeing. Even if history may change its chapters in the years to come and the times earn new names, like the past 80 years have witnessed, the weight and value of August 15, which our people won by dint of their willpower and struggle, will never change or decrease but remain absolute. Today we are celebrating the 80th anniversary of liberation with a boundless sense of dignity and honour as we have left the proudest and most sacred traces for our forerunners, our country and our coming generations. Unless there is a baton a country or nation defends and passes at the cost of their lives even when they have a great history their pioneers wrote at the cost of their lives, and unless they struggle generation after generation to keep safe and add lustre to the invaluable gains bequeathed by the forerunners, such a country or nation will have no other alternative but to see their bloodline cut off and forfeit their right even to remember their past with honour. We are celebrating the day of national liberation with such splendour today because we feel really proud of the course of the struggle we have followed willingly in order to build a country of everlasting strength and prosperity on this land dyed with the red blood of the forerunners.
