President Kim Il Sung's Immortal Exploits in Founding the Juche-Oriented Air Force

Beholding the planes above the parade square on the 70th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War, the entire Korean people paid tribute to President Kim Il Sung, the founder and builder of the Juche-oriented air force, and were filled with deep emotion as they recalled the immortal exploits he performed in establishing the country's air force.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said:

"Comrade Kim Il Sung, who gave priority to strengthening the revolutionary armed forces throughout his revolutionary career, worked a military miracle of the 20th century by defeating two imperialist powers, the most ferocious forces in the world, developed the Korean People's Army into a match-for-a-hundred revolutionary army and accomplished the aims of arming all the people and fortifying the whole country. Thus he provided a solid military guarantee for ensuring the sovereignty of the country and everlasting prosperity of the nation."

An air force, as an important service in carrying out the missions of territorial defense of a country and the strategic and tactical missions in a war, is a special force, which combines the combat spirit and the military and technical capabilities of a country's army. It is one of the three major forces in a war as it carries out such missions as air strike, reconnaissance, transport, supply and even strategic missions against the enemy. For this reason, numerous countries are heavily investing in building a modern air force and endeavouring to strengthen it both in quality and quantity in order to have an edge in a modern warfare.

For the Korean people, who had to experience a bitter pain of a ruined colonial country in the past as they had no sufficient arms to defend their own country and their own land, it was their wish to have a true army of the people, a modern army, which is capable of reliably defending the security of the country and nation from the invasion of all sorts of enemies. An air force is an essential component of a modern and advanced army. However, it was deemed virtually impossible after liberation in our country to establish a complete air force armed with aircrafts, which is a combination of modern industry and technology, as the country had been trampled under the medieval Japanese colonial rule.

Although there were numerous matters pending settlement in the liberated country, President Kim Il Sung pushed ahead with the project of establishing the air force which would defend the territorial air of the country.

First of all, President Kim Il Sung unfolded a far-reaching plan from the Juche-oriented standpoint to establish an air force which would defend the territorial air of the country by our own efforts, and became the first initiator and leader in setting up a flying corps.

During the early days of anti-Japanese struggle, he detested to see the abominable Japanese planes taking away the precious lives of his revolutionary comrades-in-arms, which made him all the more determined to build a modern flying corps when founding the army of our country in the liberated motherland.

Shortly after founding the Party in mid-October, Juche 34(1945), he met a pilot, a member of Sinuiju Aviation Association, who came to Pyongyang, despite his busy schedule. Having been informed of his activities such as organizing the aviation association and repairing airplanes and conducting flight trainings, President Kim Il Sung expressed his satisfaction with the fact that he had taken the first step towards setting up a flying corps of the new Korea, and taught him ways to strengthen the association.

On November 29, Juche 34(1945), he visited Sinuiju Aviation Association.

On this very day, he made a historic speech of encouragement, "Let Us Create the Air Force of the New Korea", and indicated the direction to take stressing the importance of its creation.

In this historic speech, he clearly stated that if our country was not to become a colony of foreign imperialists again but to build a prosperous, independent and sovereign state, it must have a powerful national army, and here, the formation of an air force was of great importance. He went on to say that we had to form an air force for the new Korea that is capable of reliably defending the blue skies of the country, and to this end, we had to form an aviation organization to begin with, and push ahead with the development of aeronautics.

On this day, he assumed the presidency of the Aviation Association of Korea in compliance with the request and wish of all its members.

Since then, the project of establishing the Juche-oriented air force in our country had been vigorously propelled in a correct direction and with correct methods.

Later in December, Juche 34(1945), President Kim Il Sung saw to it that several other aviation organizations in different parts of the country were joined to officially form the Korean Aviation Association so that a firm foundation could be laid out for the unified control on a nationwide scale over the establishment of the air force.

Next, President Kim Il Sung wisely led the project of establishing the Juche-oriented air force, which would defend the territorial air of the country. Thanks to his leadership, the first flying corps of Korea was set up in a short period of only two years after liberation.

He paid primary attention to training the commanding officers who would be the backbone of the air force and trained them holding them as dear as so many pieces of gold.

A flying corps consists of pilots and technical service members. However, at that time in our country pilots were very rare and there was also a shortage of technical service personnel. In the early days of his leadership over the establishment of the air force, President Kim Il Sung had already made a scientific analysis of the components of the air force, and on the basis of this, he gave instructions to begin a specialized training by setting up a flight class and a technical service class.

Afterwards, he saw to it that an aviation class was set up at Pyongyang School, which trained the backbone of the regular revolutionary armed forces, and that the sons of workers and peasants were admitted and trained as the first students of the aviation class.

In those days, President Kim Il Sung checked on the situation of the aviation class on several occasions and solved the problems in training excellent pilots, and took a special care of their work and life, stressing that man is more valuable than a plane. Therefore, a remarkable achievement was made within a period of only two years in our country in the training of pilots and service personnel, which took many more years in other countries.

On the basis of the preparations made with the pilots and technical service personnel, he saw to it that a flying corps was set up first, which would become the mother of the air force so that an experience could be gained in the building of an air force.

On August 20, Juche 36(1947), he saw to it that the first flying corps of the new Korea was set up by selecting the best students from the Aviation Department of Pyongyang School. At the time of the set-up, the number of planes counted only 20. However, the fact that an independent flying corps was set up within a short period of only 2 years after liberation was an event of miracle in the situation of the country at that time.

Afterwards, President Kim Il Sung saw to it that an air force was founded as a service of regular revolutionary armed forces.

In September Juche 37(1948), a year after the set-up of the first flying corps, he organized an independent air force regiment directly under the Ministry of National Defense, which he later, renamed the 25th Air Force Regiment of the Korean People's Army. In this way, he founded an air force as a service of the KPA, a regular revolutionary armed force.

On December 9 that year, he visited the air unit again.

On this significant day, the first battle flag was presented to our Air Force and the nationality symbol, whose design was formulated by himself was inscribed on the hull of the planes for the first time.

From that day onwards, the planes of our country, inscribed with our proud nationality symbol, began reliably defending the territorial air of the motherland, leaving their vapour trails in the skies of our country, which had been robbed of state power by foreign forces as it was unable to defend itself.