KIM
JONG SUK
BIOGRAPHY (first Part)
Written By
Bhuwan Kumae Budha
CHILDHOOD
Kim Jong Suk was born of peasant
parents, Kim Chun San and O Ssi, at Osan-dong, Hoeryong Sub-county, Hoeryong
County, (now Tongmyong-dong, Hoeryong City), North Hamgyong Province, on
December 24, Juche 61
(1917).
Her family had moved from place
to place, being mistreated and exploited by landowners. In 1895, in her
grandfather‟s time, they had set-tled down in Hoeryong. Here, too, they had to
live in poverty as share-croppers. After her grandfather‟s death, they became
worse off, under the burden of increasing debts, because her father, the pillar
of the family, was frequently away from home working for the independence
movement.
Just before Kim Jong Suk was
born, the family, unable to pay back its debts, lost its share-cropping land
and its thatched cottage was pulled down. They had to live in a room in another
family‟s house on Osan Hill.
After passing the winter in the
borrowed room, her father built a lean-to that adjoined the room. Kim Jong Suk
was born in the lean-to.
The Japanese
imperialists, who had occupied Korea, resorted to military rule, shooting,
burning or burying innocent Koreans alive.
The Koreans suffered all these
atrocities, and the whole country was reduced to a prison. The people‟s wailing
over the loss of national sovereignty reverberated everywhere, and the blood of
Koreans soaked their own land. The Korean people stood up to fight against the
Japanese.
In these years of national
suffering, Kim Jong Suk‟s family also fought bravely against the Japanese
aggressors, for the country and the people.
Her
grandfather had participated in a peasant uprising against Korea‟s feudal
rulers, but the patriotic cause failed, and he died in 1908. Her
father was
engaged in the independence movement against the Japanese for many years,
crossing and recrossing the Tuman River (that flows between Korea and
China—Tr.). The patriot died in a foreign land in 1929. Her mother helped her
husband in his patriotic struggle, bringing up her children to be patriots and
revolutionaries. She was killed by Japanese “punitive” troops in July 1932. Kim
Jong Suk‟s elder brother Kim Ki Jun was an efficient underground operative. He
was killed by the enemy in 1934 while fighting to carry out Kim Il Sung‟s
Juche-oriented revolutionary line. Her younger
From her childhood, Kim Jong Suk
gave thought more to the welfare of her parents and brothers, and her
neighbours than to herself. Once, while fetching water from a well for her
mother working in a field, she tripped over a stone and broke the earthenware
jar, which her mother had brought with her as part of her dowry. A few days
later, she called at the local kiln, which hired village women for temporary
work and paid them with earthenware jars. Kim Jong Suk, however, was too young
to get a job there. Regretfully turning away, she saw that one of the women
working there had a crying baby on her back. Feeling pity for the woman, she
took the baby from its mother and cared for it till noon.
THE FIRST
STEP OF STRUGGLE
Early in
1931, the Japanese imperialists‟ ambition to occupy Manchuria became
transparent, and war was imminent in that part of the world.
Meanwhile,
the Korean people‟s resistance to Japanese fascist rule developed into a
violent mass struggle.
The atmosphere of revolution
also enveloped Fuyandong. Political operatives who had been dispatched there by
Kim Il Sung formed the Anti-Imperialist Union (AIU), Peasants Association,
Revolutionary Mutual Aid Society3,
Women‟s Association and other revolutionary organizations in that area by
enlisting the masses into them.
In those days, Kim Ki Jun was a
hard-core member of the AIU. His family did not know this, but Kim Jong Suk
sensed that her elder brother was working by night for a great cause. She
believed that he was treading the path of struggle to win back the lost
country, and resolved to follow suit.
The Young Communist League (YCL)
gave an assignment to the night-school teacher to train Kim Jong Suk into a regular
revolutionary through practical struggle. With her teacher‟s help, Kim Jong Suk
realized that it was Kim Il Sung who was giving leadership to the Korean
revolution. His noble name which symbolized the cherished desire of the entire
nation was firmly imprinted in her memory. She imagined the man to whom the
name belonged, and believed that he would win back the lost country for the
nation, provide the Korean people with a new world free from exploitation and
oppression, destroy the Japanese marauders and put right the evils of society.
She determined to fight all her life along the road indicated by him.
One spring day in 1931, Kim Jong
Suk turned up at a rendezvous at the foot of Mt. Nan, in excitement to receive
an assignment from the revolu-tionary organization for the first time in her
life. From a shady thicket, her night-school teacher appeared. Some distance
away, Kim Ki Jun was standing. Her heart throbbed with a feeling of respect for
her brother and pride in having such a brother, as well as her delight and
pride in herself for following the path he had taken.
She received an assignment to
scatter leaflets of a written appeal in her village and at places where many
people would gather. She stole through the village in the darkness of night to
carry out the assignment.
Next morning, the whole village
found itself in great excitement to see the leaflets scattered all over their
yards and the roads; one was even pasted on the gate of the landowner‟s house.
LEADERSHIP
Following the foundation of the
AJPGA, the first revolutionary armed force of the Korean people, Kim Il Sung
set the task of organizing a guerrilla base in the form of a liberated zone in
May 1932, in order to protect the young guerrilla army and the revolutionary
masses from the enemy‟s attacks, and quickly increase and strengthen the
revolutionary forces.
As part of the effort, a
guerrilla zone was established in Shangcun, Fuyan, and the revolutionary masses
from the neighbouring villages
started to move, collectively or individually, to the newly
established guerrilla zone.
Kim Jong Suk
and her younger brother determined to move to the guer-rilla zone in the autumn
of that year. She had to part from her elder brother and her nephew, whom she
had been bringing up with all her care. She had had to pay visits to far-off
villages everyday to beg for milk for the baby. When refused sometimes, she had
had to turn round with tears in her eyes. More than once, she had had to lull
the hungry, crying baby all night, with tears in her own eyes.
Till the very
moment of leaving for the guerrilla zone, she was thinking of taking the baby
with her. Her elder brother Kim Ki Jun, however, did not agree with the idea.
When she was stepping out of her house, her nephew burst out crying. Despite
Kim Ki Jun‟s efforts to soothe it, it continued cry-ing and writhing.
Heartbroken, Kim Jong Suk went back into the room, unable to start off that
night. The next day, the enemy‟s “punitive” troops assaulted the village again.
Kim Jong Suk quickly climbed up a nearby hill with her nephew in her arms. She
meant to go straight to the guerrilla zone, taking her nephew with her.
Her brother
ran after her, almost out of breath, and said to her: “You‟re not yet fully
determined to fight for the revolution. If you are going to be a revolutionary,
you must first think of the revolution. If you worry about your family, how can
you make a revolution? Don‟t worry about the family. ... Go and fight!” With
these words he took back the baby and climbed down the valley. The child‟s
crying echoed through the valley, marking this eternal farewell between the
brother who must have shed tears of blood hugging his son struggling not to be
parted from his aunt, and the sister who had to go to the guerrilla zone
hearing the heart-rending cry of her dear nephew, both taking the path of
struggle, ready to sacrifice their family and everything else for the
revolution.
The
conditions in the newly established guerrilla zone were very hard. So many
people from Xiacun and Zhongcun in Fuyan, and other neigh-bouring villages came
to the guerrilla zone that there was not enough food and housing for them. To
make matters worse, the enemy made “punitive” attacks on them on a large scale
to nip the guerrilla zone in the bud.
Kim Jong Suk
began to work at dawn every day. She got up earlier than everyone else. When
she was sweeping the yard and the road, she used to hear the reveille sounded
by Kim Ki Song, the bugler of the CC. When the
CC
members got up at the bugle signal
and gathered on the hilltop, she would line them up and guide their morning
exercises.
STANDARD-BEARER
IN THE GUERRILLA ZONE
Entering the winter of 1933, the
enemy intensified his “punitive” opera-tions against the guerrilla zones.
Despite repeated failure, the Japanese imperialists enlisted the Jiandao task
force of the occupation force in Korea,
the puppet Manchukuo army police force and armed Self-Defence Corps tens of thousands strong for winter
“punitive” operations. They even brought in mortars and airplanes. Thousands of
troops were hurled into the operations against the guerrilla zones in Yanji
County.
Defence of
the guerrilla zones was an important issue for expanding the anti-Japanese
armed struggle and developing the overall Korean revolution without
interruption.
Kim Jong Suk fought to defend
the guerrilla zones with the unit of the AJPGA stationed in Donggou, Fuyan.
Leading the members of the CV and CC, she dug trenches alongside the adults,
and, when battles were fought, carried hot water to the battlegrounds braving the
hail of bullets, and some-times joined the guerrillas in battles, rolling rocks
down upon the enemy.
The
revolutionary organization decided to evacuate the civilians in the guerrilla
zone to Sifangtai, a safer place.
Late in
December 1933, Kim Jong Suk left Cangcaicun with the first group of evacuees.
When the second group was climbing the mountain west of the guerrilla zone, 100
Japanese “punitive” troops spotted them and began to pursue them up the
snow-covered mountain slope. Most of the evacuees were old people and women
carrying children on their backs. The distance between them and the enemy
troops narrowed, enemy bullets hissed about their ears, and the whole group was
at the very jaws of death.
At this
moment, a bugle call rang out on Lufei Peak northwest of Cang caicun. It was
Kim Ki Song who was blowing the bugle. Having been assigned by the organization
the task of watching the enemy‟s movements, he was climbing the peak when he
saw the hair-raising situation. In order to divert the enemy‟s attention and
save the people, he sounded the charge on his bugle.
The bugle
call threw the enemy into terror and consternation, thinking that the
guerrillas were upon them. Kim Ki Song blew his bugle, and drew the enemy after
him and away from the evacuees. An enemy bullet hit him, and he fell, never to
rise again. He was only 12 years old.
The evacuees too thought that
the guerrillas had arrived and had annihi-lated the enemy soldiers. They
crossed over the mountain and went to the intermediary rendezvous, where they
joined the first group of evacuees. Kim Jong Suk, who had arrived there with
the first group, built a campfire for the second group of evacuees so that they
could spend the night there. She never thought that her brother was lying dead
on a mountainside after saving the lives of the evacuees.
Kim Ki Song‟s
corpse was found by a Women‟s Association worker returning from a mission in
the enemy-held area. The woman had come to the guerrilla zone with Kim Jong Suk
and shared a lodging with her. Climbing the peak she found a boy lying under an
oak with a bugle in his hand. A red scarf was around his neck and two
clubs were tied to the knapsack on his back.
.
In the autumn of 1934, Kim Jong
Suk was called to Nengzhiying, San-daowan, to work at the Yanji County YCL
Committee.
Everyone in District No.8 knew
the district YCL committee member who was full of vivacity and animation, as
kind-hearted to the CC members as their elder sister and to the people as their
daughter, and relentless in front of the enemy. Her activities as a YCL member
for two years, especially as a District No. 8 YCL Committee member, were
characterized by a high sense of responsibility for her revolutionary
assignments, devotion, excellent organizing abilities and traits befitting a
revolutionary. This aroused trust in and respect for her among the people, and
testified that she could fully undertake the work with young people on a higher
level.
At the county YCL committee she
engaged mainly in internal work and the work with the YCL organizations in the
enemy-held areas.
In those days, the wind of
ultra-Leftist anti-”Minsaengdan”struggle, initiated by chauvinists and factionalists, was sweeping through the
guerrilla zones in eastern Manchuria.
Availing themselves of the
opportunity created by Kim Il Sung‟s expedition to northern Manchuria, the
chauvinists and factionalists stigmatized true Korean revolutionaries as
“Minsaengdan” members, persecuting and even murdering them.
In Nengzhiying, Sandaowan, Ri
Sang Muk was raising the whirlwind of the anti-”Minsaengdan” struggle. He
stigmatized one man as a
“Minsaengdan” member for saying on his way home from night
sentry duty that he was hungry, a cook for burning rice and another man for
expressing sympathy for a comrade who was suspected of being a member.
The people did not know whom to
trust or when misfortune would befall them; they lived in terror and suspense.
Among the “Minsaengdan” suspects imprisoned were Ku Myong Bok, the county Party
chief, whom Kim Jong Suk had been acquainted with from their days in District
No. 8, and Kim Tong Gu, a man of strong principles and a courageous officer of
the guerrilla army.
Kim Jong Suk did not believe
that they were “Minsaengdan” members, and felt from the beginning that the
struggle against the organization was cooked up by evil people. Besides, she
had experience of fighting against this misguided struggle. In the previous
spring, a meeting to try a “Minsaengdan” member was held in Fuyan. The one to
be tried was Choe Hui Suk, who had long worked well as a YCL member. The
evidence against her was that she had “complained” about the difficult life in
the guerrilla zone. Everyone present at the meeting knew that she could not be
a “Minsaengdan” member, but did not dare say so lest they themselves be tarred
with the same brush. Kim Jong Suk, however, unhesitatingly took the floor, and
spoke in defence of Choe. She said, “I believe that Choe is faithful to the
revolution. How can we say our revolutionary comrade is a „Minsaengdan‟ member
just because of a word she uttered? If we kill revolutionaries as „Minseangdan‟
members, it will be the enemy who will benefit.”
The audience
responded to her appeal. The chauvinists who were trying her could not but find
her innocent. Later, Choe fought bravely as a soldier of the KPRA. She was
arrested by the enemy, who blinded her. But she shouted, “I can see the victory
of the revolution,” demonstrating the indefatigable will and revolutionary
principles of Korean revolutionaries.
One year
later, the situation was even grimmer. No logic defence or strong evidence made
sense. Anyone who defended the “Minsaengdan” suspects or helped them, even to
the slightest degree, was condemned as a “Minsaengdan” member there and then.
However, Kim Jong Suk could not
remain silent when true revolutionaries were stigmatized as “Minsaengdan”
members and killed, and an atmosphere of distrust and terror was created in the
revolutionary ranks.
When the
Anti-Japanese Self-Defence Corps members in Donggou were condemned as being
connected with the “Minsaengdan”, Kim Jong Suk visited them without hesitation.
She encouraged them, saying that they should never give in, but instead hold
fast to their revolutionary principles as befitted young Korean
revolutionaries.
This could
not but enrage the chauvinists and factionalist worshippers of big powers.
JOINING THE
KPRA
On September 18, 1935, Kim Jong
Suk joined the KPRA in the Chechangzi guerrilla zone.
That day, a new chapter opened
in Kim Jong Suk‟s career as a leg-endary “anti-Japanese heroine” and “woman
general of Mt. Paektu”.
In front of the red flag
fluttering in the sky of Chechangzi, she was awarded a rifle bearing the blood
and wishes of fallen comrades and the expectations of the Korean nation.
That day, Kim Jong Suk expressed her
determination in this way:
“With this rifle bearing the
blood of the revolutionary forerunners and the people‟s desire for national
liberation, I will be faithful to General Kim Il Sung to the last moment of my
life. I take this one rifle as one hundred rifles and will shoot one bullet as
one hundred bullets to take revenge on the enemy.”
She was faithful to this resolve
from her first day in the KPRA. On joining the army, she was entrusted by the
Party organization with the task of doing the YCL work in the unit. While
performing this task, she was zealous in exercising guerrilla tactics and
political study. She also devoted efforts to shooting practice. Her
marksmanship became known from the battles she fought in to defend the
guerrilla zone.
In
October that year, a revolutionary organization in the enemy-held area sent a
message to the guerrilla zone. Enemy troops numbering 10,000 were to be hurled
into the “punitive” operations against theguerrillazone. The guerrillas,
Anti-Japanese Self-Defence Corps
and Young
Volunleers, Corps in the guerrilla zone totalled only about
100. The odds were overwhelmingly against the guerrillas. Anxiety and
apprehension prevailed among the commanding officers, and it was transmitted to
the men in the fighting positions.
Kim Jong Suk, occupying a position
with other fighters, encouraged them, saying that their defence position on a
steep cliff near the Godong River was quite advantageous for repulsing the
enemy‟s attack.
The battle started in the early
morning. The enemy soldiers, armed with heavy and light machine-guns and
artillery, and supported by planes, launched their attack on three sides. On
the bank of the river they stopped advancing, and started bombing to detect the
positions of the guerrillas. They had to cross a log bridge over the river, and
there, a gateway to the guerrilla zone, crack shots of the KPRA were
positioned. As there was no response from the guerrillas, the enemy soldiers
began to cross the river over the narrow bridge at about noon.
The guerrillas discharged a
volley of bullets when the main column of the enemy troops was in the middle of
the bridge. The bridge was covered with the corpses of the enemy soldiers in an
instant.
Kim Jong Suk hit with a single
shot a Japanese officer who was com-manding his men with a sword.
Seeing their
officer fall, the enemy soldiers retreated in haste into the forest.
The company commander ran to the
guerrillas, and said that the enemy were attempting to break through the
defence line of the Young Volunteers‟ Corps, and reinforcements should be sent
there.
Kim Jong Suk volunteered to go,
as she had been there several times. She rushed there together with a veteran
guerrilla. The enemy soldiers were crossing the river, and a group of them were
already climbing the height occupied by the young volunteers. The inexperienced
young volunteers were in a panic.
Reading the situation at once,
Kim Jong Suk rushed to the volunteers and shouted, “Comrades, roll down the
rocks!” There were heaps of rocks there, which had been piled up at the time of
the building of the defence position. The volunteers came to their senses, and
began to roll the rocks down. Faced with this unexpected type of attack, the
enemy soldiers were thrown into confusion. At this moment, Kim Jong Suk told
the volunteers
to fire their rifles, taking careful aim, herself shooting
down an enemy soldier with every bullet each.
The battle was fiercer the next
day. At the height of the battle, ammunition was in short supply.
IN MAANSHAN
From Naitoushan to Maanshan was
not a long distance, and it took only two days on foot in ordinary times. But
at this time of year the primeval forest, waist-deep snow, rugged cliffs and
steep mountain ridges made the march very difficult.
In addition,
Kim Jong Suk was leading 20 CC members. The children had followed the guerrilla
unit from Chechangzi.
When they were about to leave
Chechangzi, some narrow-minded com-manding officers and chauvinists suggested
sending the children to the enemy‟s ruling area, claiming that they would
hinder the guerrilla action.
Kim Jong Suk said that this ran against the intention of
General Kim Il Sung, and it was a dangerous suggestion which did not consider
the future of the Korean revolution. Many of the guerrillas supported Kim Jong
Suk. The children who had followed the guerrilla unit from Chechangzi suffered
much, separated from the unit temporarily when the guerrillas encountered the
enemy, but they finally arrived in Naitoushan. Their determination was that
even if they were to die, they would die while following the guerrilla unit.
In
Naitoushan, Kim Jong Suk patched children‟s clothes and took good care of sick
children. The children gained some experience there, watching the enemy‟s
moves, standing guard and taking part in battles against the enemy‟s “punitive”
troops by helping the guerrillas.
Nevertheless,
leaving Naitoushan, some chauvinists and their followers again tried to leave
the children behind. We need not make these poorly-dressed children suffer
hardships by dragging them about in this rigorous winter. How miserable they
are trying to keep up with the unit! Remember how much they hindered our
actions on the way to Naitoushan. This was their assertion.
Kim Jong Suk
refuted this assertion. She said that the fallen comrades would blame them, if
they left the children behind in Naitoushan. She repeatedly insisted that she
would personally lead the children on her own responsibility.
The
chauvinists had to capitulate. When they got near to Maanshan, the regimental
headquarters, heading for Jiaohe, gave an instruction that only the
“Minsaengdan” suspects and the CC members should proceed to the
Maanshan
secret camp.
Repressing
her anger, Kim Jong Suk walked towards Maanshan with the totally exhausted
children. When some children fell down, she encouraged them, saying that if
they walked a little more, they would see Maanshan. Sometimes she walked with a
little boy on her back.
When they arrived in Maanshan,
nobody welcomed them. Instead, the chief of the secret camp became angry and
asked who ordered her to bring children to the secret camp. Saying that the
children would hinder the guerrilla action, he demanded that she take them to a
far-off log cabin.
The
guerrillas who had come together with the children were sent to the Sampho
secret camp, separated from the main camp, because they were “Minsaengdan”
suspects.
The log cabin in which the
children were put had no door or paper cov-erings for the windows. Snowflakes
flew into the room through the door and windows. In the cabin there were
already other children, whose condition was even more wretched than that of
those Kim Jong Suk had brought with her. They had also come to Maanshan
following a guerrilla unit, determined to avenge their dead parents, but they
were neglected. Consequently, Kim Jong Suk alone had charge of dozens of
children.
Two days passed, but nobody
called at the log cabin. Kim Jong Suk repaired the log cabin with the children
to make it basically comfortable, but there was no way to obtain food. On the
third day, she visited the chief of the secret camp, but he said that the
Maanshan secret camp was not a place for bringing up children, and demanded
that she send them to the enemy-ruled area.
In the
meantime the food he allowed for the children was not enough to provide them
with even one meal a day.
Kim Jong Suk
herself dug out grass roots from the snow-covered ground and picked berries to
feed the children. Many times she had only water for her own meal.
She had to
take care of sick children and patch their threadbare clothes. Not a day passed
without difficulty. She frequently spent many sleepless nights and skipped
meals. Once she found rice bran in a deserted Buddhist temple. About one month
passed in this way. The children became weaker every day, and the number of
sick children increased. Kim Jong Suk called on the guerrillas she had come
with. But, the situation of those “Minsaengdan” suspects was hardly different
from that of the children. The cold wind of the ultra-leftist
anti-”Min-saengdan” campaign was blowing continuously in Maanshan. However,
they were only ones she could depend on. “We must obtain food,” she told them.
“If we leave the children as they are, they will die in a few days. Please help
me. Organize a small unit, and I will join it.”
THE SECRET CAMP ON MT. PAEKTU
The main force unit of the KPRA
started a march towards the border area on the Amnok River amid a rousing
send-off from the people of Manjiang.
They crossed
a boundless primeval forest, before they reached Duoguling, a high and rugged
pass which was located southwest of Mt. Paektu.
Encouraged by Kim Il Sung‟s
words that if they scaled this pass, they would get a distant view of their
homeland, the soldiers climbed the mountain, forgetting their exhaustion.
At last they
heard his resonant voice. “Comrades!” he cried. “The homeland is in sight.” Kim
Jong Suk ran up to the top of the pass hand in hand
with
other women guerrillas.
They could
see Mt. Paektu, the grand spectacle of the snow-capped ancestral mountain, the
symbol of the long history of Korea, and the green mountain ranges stretching
from it.
Oh, dear
homeland! They had long fought with rifle in hand in eager anticipation of
setting foot on Korean soil.
Kim Jong Suk
asked Kim Il Sung where Hoeryong was. He pointed northeast far over Mt. Paektu.
He said that
Hoeryong was located on the other side of the Tuman River, beyond Mt. Paektu.
Kim Jong Suk looked far over the mountain with deep emotion and excitement, as
he pointed.
Kim Il Sung said, indicating the
homeland on the shores of the Amnok River: “Look at that boundless sea of
forests and rugged ravines with cliffs on both sides. This wonderful natural
fortress stretching from the summit of Mt. Paektu, the ancestral mountain of
our country, will provide us with a theatre of our sacred future struggle. We
will establish secret camps deep in the forests at the foot of Mt. Paektu,
using the natural fortress of this vast forest, and unite the people firmly
into a national liberation front, so as to raise the torch of national
restoration.”
Bearing his teachings in mind,
she looked back upon the road the Korean revolution had traversed to Mt.
Paektu. It was indeed a course of a bloody struggle, which had to break through
a forest of bayonets.
In this course, the strength of
the KPRA, the leading force of the Korean revolution, increased beyond
comparison, and the ARF, the standing anti-Japanese national united front, was
organized, under which different classes were uniting.
If the KPRA settled down in the
Mt. Paektu area, it would be possible to unite all the patriotic forces in the
homeland, and accomplish the cause of national liberation by means of nationwide
resistance. This was Kim Il Sung‟s plan, and he already made a resolution after
the Donggang meeting to establish a new revolutionary base in the Mt. Paektu
area. He assigned the task of leading the advance party to Kim Ju Hyon and Ri
Tong Hak.
On the day of their departure to
the Mt. Paektu area to select the site for the establishment of the secret camp
on Mt. Paektu, Kim Ju Hyon expressed his intention to go alone, however hard
his work might be, and to leave Company Commander Ri Tong Hak with the unit to
guard Headquarters.
Kim Jong Suk
said that the establishment of the secret bases on Mt. Paektu was a very
important task relating to the Korean revolution as a whole, and so Kim Il Sung
had decided to send the two men in advance, as a special mission. She requested
them to exert all their efforts for implementation of their task without having
to worry about safeguarding Headquarters.
IN TAOQUANLI
With a view
to further consolidating the ARF organizations and rapidly expanding them on a
national scale, Kim Il Sung dispatched experienced political workers to various
regions, including those in the homeland.
In mid-March
1937, when the unit arrived in the Xigang area, he assigned Kim Jong Suk the
task of conducting underground political work in the Taoquanli-Sinpha area.
Kim Il Sung instructed her to
base herself in Taoquanli, and improve the work of the ARF in the Xiagangqu
area before opening a route to Sinpha and expanding the network of the ARF
organizations in the east coast areas of Korea. “I‟m confident that you will
succeed in this challenging task. Whenever you face difficulties, please rely
on your comrades and the people,” he added.
“I will carry
out the task without fail and return to the unit, Comrade Commander.”
Her reply, though short,
reflected her firm determination to prove herself worthy of the trust and
expectation of Kim Il Sung in the face of all trials and difficulties.
Concentrating
their oppressive military forces on the border area along the Amnok River, the
Japanese imperialists made frantic efforts to check the thrust of the KPRA into
the homeland. In addition, they instigated their stooges affiliated with the
“Concord Society”,
to launch a disinformation campaign about the KPRA, and dampen the
revolutionary zeal of the people.
Kim Jong Suk left Headquarters for
Changbai.
Staying for a fortnight in a
rendezvous eight kilometres from Tian-shangshui, she helped the work of the ARF
chapter there and at the same time made preparations for underground work,
reading newspapers and studying the situation in Taoquanli and Xiagangqu and
the Sinpha area in the homeland, with the help of Kim Jae Su and other
underground organization members.
In April that year, in the guise
of an immigrant from Musan named Om Ok Sun, she went to Taoquanli.
Taoquanli,
consisting of several hamlets, was a fairly large mountainous village with
about 200 households.
She first met
Jong Tong Chol, the village head and a member of the underground organization.
Jong explained the state of affairs in Taoquanli, the composition of its
inhabitants and the activities of the underground organizations.
The
operations of the ARF chapters and branches formed in Taoquanli, Yaofangzi and
several other villages were sluggish at that time.
THE SPECIAL ENVOY
In early July
1937, a messenger from Headquarters came to convey to Kim Jong Suk a new task
given by Kim Il Sung, requiring her to move immediately to the homeland to
inform the revolutionary organizations and patriots active there of the clear
target and appropriate strategy and tactics for their future struggle, to unite
behind the ARF the revolutionaries and members of all the anti-Japanese
organizations active in a dispersed way, and to push ahead with the
preparations for the founding of the Party.
The task
required her to go to the Phungsan area, in particular, to send Chondoists
under the influence of the relevant revolutionary organizations to
the Chondoists Conference to be
held in Seoul, in order to bring revolutionary influence to bear on the
Chondoists throughout the country. Her duties also included meeting Ri Ju Yon,
Ri Young and Ri Yong, about whom the homeland revolutionary organizations had
reported. It was an important task aimed at extending the anti-Japanese
national united front movement and the preparations for the founding of the
Party to the homeland, and building a revolutionary bulwark on the east coast
of the homeland.
Working with
strange Chondoists in the Phungsan area and also with unfamiliar communists and
anti-Japanese patriots active in various places of the homeland was a very
tough job that required prudence.
Chondoism was founded in 1860 by
Choe Je U under the slogan, “Innaechon” (Man and God are one) and “Pogukanmin”
(Defending the country and providing welfare for the people), and developed by
second leader Choe Si Hyong and third leader Son Pyong Hui into a national
religious organization with three million followers. This religious
organization was involved in the Kabo Peasant War,
the Righteous Volunteers struggle and the March First Popular Uprising,
under the banner of “Driving out the Westerners and the Japanese” and
“Defending the country and providing welfare for the people.” However, the
upper strata of Chondoism turned into reformists later. Some of them, Choe Rin,
for example, turned pro-Japanese after serving prison terms. But the majority
of the followers of this faith formed various organizations to resist the
Japanese.
Proceeding from his
understanding of this situation, Kim Il Sung, fol-lowing the founding of the
ARF, elaborated a plan of uniting all of the three million followers of
Chondoism behind ARF organizations, and discussed his plan with Tojong Pak In
Jin (Tojong is a title of a local leader of the Chondoist religion) for three
days at the secret camp on Saja Hill in the winter of 1936.
During the meeting, Tojong Pak
In Jin expressed his full support for Kim Il Sung‟s idea of national
liberation, declared his determination to enlist the one million members of the
Young Chondoist Party in the sacred war for Korea‟s liberation, and promised
that he would keep in close contact with Kim Il Sung.
Later, Tojong
Pak went to Seoul, where the Chondoists General Confer-ence was to be held, to
negotiate with Choe Rin and the upper echelons of the central body of
Chondoism.
Pak urged the followers of the
Chondoist faith to fight, united behind the ARF. Yet Choe Rin opposed him,
advocating reformism and a pro-Japanese policy.
Enraged, Pak
broke with Choe Rin, and returned to Phungsan. He stopped sending annual ritual
rice to Seoul, and recalled his permanent representative at the headquarters of
the Young Chondoist Party in Seoul.
LET NOT THE DEATHS OF
COMRADES-IN-ARMS
BE IN VAIN
By the time Kim Jong Suk
returned to the unit after completing her mission of underground activities,
the prevailing situation was complicated and grave.
Following their provocation of
full-scale armed aggression on the Chinese mainland on July 7, 1937, the
Japanese imperialists stepped up their fascist suppression of the Korean people
and “punitive” offensive against the KPRA, on the pretext of ensuring “security
in the rear.”
At successive meetings,
including the meeting of the commanding per-sonnel of the main-force unit of
the KPRA held at the secret camp on Mt. Paektu in July 1937, and in the Appeal
to All Korean Compatriots published in September the same year, Kim Il Sung
put forward a policy of intensifying the anti-Japanese armed struggle and
bringing about a new upsurge in the Korean revolution as a whole, to meet the
rapidly-changing situation. He said that, before anything else, the KPRA units
should wage brisk armed struggle in the border areas and in the homeland,
launch a hard strike at the enemy from the rear, and accelerate the
preparations for an all-people resistance throughout the country.
The winter
operations in 1937 and the spring offensive in 1938 were an important part of
implementing this strategic and tactical policy. Kim Il Sung dispatched to
various places many small units whose mission it was to build up underground
revolutionary organizations and secure clothing and food necessary for the
launching of new operations.
Kim Jong Suk, too, was assigned
a task a few days after her return. The destination of her new mission was the
Jiazaishui village, where she was to take quick steps to protect the
revolutionary organizations from the crackdown prompted by the “Hyesan
incident,” and direct the work of the small unit that had been dispatched there
to obtain clothing and food.
When she arrived at the
Jiazaishui village, Kim Jong Suk repeatedly spoke highly of the efforts made by
the members of the revolutionary organizations there to protect their
organizations and send a large amount of supply goods to the guerrilla army, in
the teeth of the enemy‟s suppression. And she said, “It is extremely important
to protect revolutionary organizations as the enemy‟s white terror is gaining
momentum, ... but what you should know is that revolutionary organizations are
formed to wage struggle, not to protect themselves, and they will only grow
stronger in the crucible of struggle.”
While showing great concern for
making the revolutionary organizations more militant and active, she led the
small unit to deal all out with the work of obtaining
clothing and food.
THE NEW THEATRE OF
WAR ON THE BANK OF THE TUMAN RIVER
The main-force unit of the KPRA
left Changshanling, and marched in the direction of Damalugou. It reached
Dagou, Antu County, where Kim Il Sung called, on May 24, 1939, a meeting of
military and political cadres of the KPRA to put forward a policy of building
another strong revolutionary bulwark in the areas northeast of Mt. Paektu
through intensive military and political activities there. He divided the
main-force unit of the KPRA into groups of regimental size, so that each could
hold a certain area, striking the enemy here and there, and closely combining
military actions with political activities. As a result, the Guard Company and
the 8th Regiment left for Huifengdong via Yushidong, Helong County, the 7th
Regiment advanced to the areas west of Hongqihe, and many different political
operatives‟ teams went to the homeland.
One of the
political operatives‟ teams included Ri Tong Gol, who had committed a grave
error as a result of his involvement in Om Kwang Ho‟s counterrevolutionary
activities at the Qingfeng Secret Camp. The day he was assigned by Kim Il Sung
to the task of political work in the homeland, Ri came to meet Kim Jong Suk.
She congratulated him from the bottom of her heart on the honour of having been
entrusted with the task. In fact, when Ri had been demoted to a cook as punishment
for his crime, it was none other than Kim Jong Suk who had shown concern for
him more than anybody else. Subjected as she had been to harsh maltreatment at
the Qingfeng Secret Camp, she never revealed her displeasure with him. On the
contrary, she helped him a lot in the kitchen, by the camp-fire, or on the
march, and often talked with him about the revolutionary attitude, obligation
and comradeship. For this reason, she rejoiced over Ri‟s assignment to the new
task as if it was her own honour, and said, “Let us work to translate the
Commander‟s idea of national liberation into reality to the letter. You need to
think of the Commander each time you face challenges and find yourself in a
helpless situation. Then, you‟ll feel re-energized and think of a way out.
IN THE WAKE OF THE
XIAOHAERBALING
CONFERENCE
The Japanese imperialists, even
before concluding their war against China, expanded the theatre of war to
Southeast Asia, in order to realize their ambition of creating a “Greater East
Asia Co-prosperity Sphere”28.
In the meantime, for the “security of the home front”, they launched a
large-scale “punitive” offensive to “finally annihilate” the KPRA by mobilizing
a 200,000-strong elite force, at the same time resorting to unprecedented
political oppression and economic plunder of the Korean people.
Externally,
the flames of the Second World War were spreading all over the world.
In this grim
situation, Kim Il Sung cherished an optimistic view of the chances for the
restoration of the country, and set forth the strategic policy of taking the
initiative to greet the momentous occasion.
The
Xiaohaerbaling conference of military and political cadres of the KPRA was held
on August 10th and 11th, 1940. At the meeting, Kim Il Sung
defined a new strategic task of
switching over from large-unit operations to small-unit actions, so as to
preserve and accumulate the forces of the KPRA, the backbone of the Korean
revolution, train its officers and men to be able political and military
cadres, prepare the Korean people politically and ideologically, and make
preparations for all-people resistance, for taking the initiative to greet the
great event of national liberation.
After the
conference, the KPRA was reorganized into small units and groups, and units for
military and political training.
In the period
of small-unit actions, Kim Jong Suk took part in the battles fought at
Huanghuadianzi, Antu County, and at Facaitun, Yanji County, under the command
of Kim Il Sung. Wherever she went, she conducted brisk political activities
among the people, inspiring them to join the sacred war for the country‟s
liberation.
In September
that year, accompanying Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Suk went to the secret camp on
Mt. Kanbaek. The camp was built on the plateau between the main peak of Mt.
Paektu and Mt. Kanbaek.
Having fully
acquainted himself with the activities of the small units and groups, Kim Il
Sung called a meeting of their leaders. Kim Jong Suk attended the meeting.
At the meeting, Kim Il Sung
gave the leaders detailed tasks for training the members of the small units and
groups to be efficient military and political cadres, building temporary secret
bases in the favourable mountainous areas in northern Korea, on which they
could rely during their activities, finding their way into the major industrial
areas, rural villages and fishermen‟s villages to bring the people there to the
consciousness of the revolution and organize them, and for organizing various
forms of anti-Japanese struggle. He regrouped some small units and defined the
areas of their operation.
Panic-stricken
in those days by the successful activities of the small units and groups of the
KPRA, the Japanese imperialists made frantic efforts to track down the Headquarters
of the KPRA. Their “punitive” forces, secret agents and traitors to the
revolution prowled the mountains and valleys.
In this situation, Kim Jong Suk
set the foremost task of the small unit led by Kim Il Sung to be that of
ensuring his personal safety.
Kim Jong Suk had already
stressed at a Party cell meeting of her small unit immediately after the
Xiaohaerbaling conference that the first and foremost task of the Headquarters
bodyguards was to ensure the personal safety of Kim Il Sung, and that this
meant the liberation of the country and the bright future of the revolution.
In the small unit led by Kim Il
Sung, she was a point woman and a sentry for the safety of Kim Il Sung:
ALWAYS A
BODYGUARD
Freed from
the colonial yoke of Japanese imperialism, Korea was seething with excitement
and delight.
People who
had been conscripted into the Japanese army or into forced labour gangs or who
had been displaced within the country or abroad returned to be reunited with
their dear ones in tears of happiness in all parts of the country.
After her
arrival in Pyongyang, however, Kim Jong Suk made every effort without a
moment‟s relaxation to assist Kim Il Sung in his work and ensure his personal
security as she had done in the years of fighting against the Japanese.
Whenever her comrades advised
her to pay a visit to Hoeryong or to find out the whereabouts of her relatives,
she used to answer that although the Japanese had been driven out of the
country, the Americans were occupying south Korea, and reactionaries were
hatching insidious plots, that the General was working day and night, that she
could not afford to leave the General instead of helping him in his work, and
that she would not go to visit her relatives before the country became secure.
Guarding Kim Il Sung‟s personal
security was especially important in view of the intensifying reactionary
manoeuvres. As the framework of nation building was formed in the north and as
the democratic force grew stronger, the class enemies resorted to terrorist
acts at the instigation of the US imperialists. The chairman of the South
Phyongan Provincial Party Committee fell a victim to the enemy‟s terrorism. He
had joined the revolutionary organization with the help of Ri Ju Yon, who had
been sent to South Phyongan Province by Kim Jong Suk before liberation. He had
worked in line with Kim Il Sung‟s idea.
ALWAYS A
BODYGUARD
Freed from
the colonial yoke of Japanese imperialism, Korea was seething with excitement
and delight.
People who
had been conscripted into the Japanese army or into forced labour gangs or who
had been displaced within the country or abroad returned to be reunited with
their dear ones in tears of happiness in all parts of the country.
After her
arrival in Pyongyang, however, Kim Jong Suk made every effort without a
moment‟s relaxation to assist Kim Il Sung in his work and ensure his personal
security as she had done in the years of fighting against the Japanese.
Whenever her comrades advised
her to pay a visit to Hoeryong or to find out the whereabouts of her relatives,
she used to answer that although the Japanese had been driven out of the
country, the Americans were occupying south Korea, and reactionaries were
hatching insidious plots, that the General was working day and night, that she
could not afford to leave the General instead of helping him in his work, and
that she would not go to visit her relatives before the country became secure.
Guarding Kim Il Sung‟s personal
security was especially important in view of the intensifying reactionary
manoeuvres. As the framework of nation building was formed in the north and as
the democratic force grew stronger, the class enemies resorted to terrorist
acts at the instigation of the US imperialists. The chairman of the South
Phyongan Provincial Party Committee fell a victim to the enemy‟s terrorism. He
had joined the revolutionary organization with the help of Ri Ju Yon, who had
been sent to South Phyongan Province by Kim Jong Suk before liberation. He had
worked in line with Kim Il Sung‟s idea.
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