DPRK-China Friendship develops through centuries
The DPRK and China are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bilateral treaty of friendship,
cooperation and mutual assistance.
The treaty, which was signed by
President Kim Il Sung and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai on July 11, Juche 50
(1961), demonstrated the bilateral friendship forged in the anti-imperialist
joint struggle.
The Korean and Chinese people
provided the tradition of friendship, closely cooperating with each other
through centuries, based on revolutionary obligation.
From the early period of his
revolutionary activities, the President advanced a unique line of forming an
anti-Japanese united front involving the Korean and Chinese people and made
much effort for its implementation.
In the period of the anti-Japanese
armed struggle, he set a good example of joint action with Chinese
anti-Japanese units through the battle in Dongning County Town in September
1933. In the battle the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army fully
demonstrated its fighting capacity and the heroic mettle of the Korean
revolutionaries.
The President successfully commanded
joint operations with Chinese anti-Japanese units in Luozigou in June 1934 and
in Fusong County Town in August 1936, through which he consolidated the united
front.
In January 1933, he, leading a small
number of members from his unit, made a long journey through the enemy line to
encourage Wang Delin, commander of the National Salvation Army in northeast China, to continue the anti-Japanese struggle. At that time Wang’s unit was being encircled
by the Japanese army and treated coldly even by the Nanjing government.
When Comintern suggested separating
anti-Japanese units in northeast China into Korean and Chinese units in the
mid-1930s, he categorically rejected it out of the revolutionary obligation and
sent many Korean commanding officers to Chinese units.
When China was in the thick of the
civil war late in the 1940s, he rendered sincere assistance to the Chinese
revolution, deepening friendship and unity with the Chinese people.
At that time, the Kuomintang army put
under its control Shenyang, Siping, Changchun, Jilin and many other areas,
railways and main roads in south and north Manchuria.
The Northeast Allied Democratic Army
surrendered most areas of Manchuria to the enemy and retreated towards the
River Amnok, the border between China and Korea.
The commander of the Liaoning
Military District informed the President of the urgent situation and requested
him to come to Dandong to give some recommendations.
Fierce battles were fought in the
suburbs of Dandong city, exposed to strafing.
But, the President risked himself to
go across the Amnok River and made strategic and tactical recommendations to
bring about a radical turn in the war.
He underscored the need to build
strong bases in rural areas and combine large-unit mobile operations with
guerilla operations in the enemy rear in order to weaken the enemy’s combat
power. He also advised them to go to Mt. Paektu if they were driven into a
corner, saying Korea will serve as their home front.
The commander, when meeting with the
President later, said they could win the war, encouraged by his
recommendations.
The President regarded it as
internationalist duty of all the Korean people to assist the Chinese people in
their revolutionary struggle and dispatched able commanding officers and
soldiers to northeast China.
When Chen Yun, director of the
Organizational Department of the Communist Party of China, visited Pyongyang as a special envoy of Chairman Mao Zedong, the President made up his mind to
render sincere assistance to the Chinese people.
Since the U.S. imperialists and the
Syngman Rhee regime were busy with preparations for a war against the north of Korea, able military and political cadres and war supplies were badly needed for the
building of a regular army. But the President sent more than 100,000 rifles and
large quantities of ammunitions, cloth for military uniforms and medicines to
Chinese people to greatly contribute to their victory in the war.
During the three-year-long northeast China liberation war, the Korean and Chinese units pooled efforts to defeat the one
million-strong Kuomintang army and rebel units. An estimated 700,000 of the one
million were killed, injured or arrested.
Hundreds of thousands of young Korean
people took part in the liberation operations in different parts of China,
including the northeast area, and the Korean units led by Kang Kon, Pak Rak
Gwon, Choe Kwang and other commanders played a big role in regaining occupied cities
and areas of military importance and bringing about a turn in the war.
Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou
Enlai said the flag of the People’s Republic of China was permeated with blood
shed by Korean communists and people and that the Chinese people would never
forget the Korean people’s sincere assistance.
The DPRK-China friendship provided by
leaders of elder generations of the two countries was strengthened with the
Chinese people resisting America and aiding Korea during the Korean war.
When the U.S. imperialists started
the war, the Chinese party and government organized the Chinese People’s
Volunteers and sent them to the Korean front under the banner of resisting America and aiding Korea, safeguarding the home and defending the motherland.
Before their dispatch, Mao Zedong
said the Chinese and Korean people would fight to the last against the common
enemy, uniting like brothers and sharing weal and woe with each other. The
volunteers, deeply aware of the meaning of his remark, fully displayed a spirit
of self-sacrifice and bravery in the war.
The revolutionaries and people of the
two countries consolidated their unity and friendship through anti-Japanese and
anti-U.S. battles, sharing the same destiny.
General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited
the command of the Chinese People’s Volunteers in Hoechang County, South Phyongan Province last year and said many volunteers, including Mao Anying, a son
of Mao Zedong, lost their lives in the Korean front. Though six decades has
passed, the Korean army and people have always kept their heroic feats in their
memory.
The conclusion of the DPRK-China
Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance served as solid
foundations for steadily developing the traditional friendship forged between
the two countries in the protracted revolutionary struggle and socialist
construction.
In line with the treaty, the parties,
governments and people of the two countries have powerfully accelerated
socialist construction, steadily expanding and developing friendly and cooperative
ties in all fields.
They have also respected and helped
each other to keep the U.S. and its allies from unleashing another war on the
Korean peninsula and the rest of East Asia and safeguard the world peace.
The bilateral friendship and
cooperation are developing vigorously thanks to deep concern of leader Kim Jong
Il and the Chinese leadership of a new generation.
Kim Jong Il visited China seven times in the new century to carry forward the tradition of the bilateral
friendship provided by the revolutionaries of the elder generations and make
great exploits in the development of the bilateral ties.
His latest China visit in May proved
that the DPRK-China friendship with a long history and tradition is well-tried,
indestructible one which would remain unchanged through generations.
With thanks to Korean Central News Agency (KCNA),
Pyongyang
11 July 2011