Kim Il Sung Street in Mozambique

Chairman Kim Jong Il said:

"Our leader comrade Kim Il Sung was the greatest of great men, who enjoyed respect and reverence for his outstanding ideas and theories and distinguished leadership ability, and for his benevolent personality and lofty virtue that had never before been recorded in the history of mankind."

President Kim Il Sung, the most prominent leader and peerlessly great man of the 20th century, commanded boundless respect and reverence of all people for his outstanding ideological and theoretical activities, great revolutionary practice, noble personality and great virtues.

Kim Il Sung Street in Mozambique also represents the boundless reverence and praise of all peoples for the President.

The street is located in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, a country lying from the south to the north along the shore of the Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa. It reflects the strong will of the Mozambican people never to forget the great leader who indicated the road ahead of them and led them.

With the beginning of the mid-1960s, many countries in the African continent began to be eager to put an end to the long-standing colonial rule of the European colonialists and declare independence. The people of Mozambique, which had suffered from Portuguese invasion from 1505 followed by harsh colonial rule until the 20th century, also turned out in the national liberation struggle.

The Mozambican patriots formed the Liberation Front of Mozambique n 1962, founded their army in the course of struggle against the Portuguese aggressor forces and inflicted a series of defeats on them. However, the road of national liberation was arduous. The aggressors and exploiting classes assassinated Mondelane, leader of the Liberation Front of Mozambique, in February 1969, and from May 1970, they launched a large-scale offensive against the liberated areas in a bid to cut off the border areas, block the rear bases and isolate them.

It is unthinkable apart from the teachings of President Kim Il Sung and material and moral aid of the DPRK that the Mozambican patriots could achieve the victory of the national liberation struggle with their own efforts by strengthening their own forces and firmly rallying the people despite such difficulties.

Samora Moises Machel, who was the chairman of the Liberation Front of Mozambique from 1970, visited the DPR Korea for the first time in September, Juche 60(1971) to meet President Kim Il Sung and received precious instructions from him. He had in his mind that in order to overcome the difficulties in the national liberation struggle and achieve independence of his country he should certainly receive instructions from President Kim Il Sung, a legendary hero and an ever-victorious and iron-willed commander, who had defeated two imperialist powers in one generation.

Understanding the difficulties facing the Liberation Front of Mozambique, the President clarified the need to wage battles by depending on jungles in Africa so that it could disperse and weaken the enemy forces and preserve its fighting forces, instilling in Machel the confidence of victory. Moreover, President Kim Il Sung took measures to give it material aid needed for expanding its armed struggle free of charge.

Machel was deeply moved by the noble sense of obligation and great virtue of President Kim Il Sung who personally indicated the strategic and tactical plans for leading the national liberation struggle to victory and made sure that materials needed for the army of the Liberation Front were provided free of charge.

So Machel, who fought as instructed by President Kim Il Sung, won independence of his country on June 25, 1975 and became the first president of his country. In his inauguration speech that day, he spoke in an excited tone as follows:

"My fellow countrymen,

We must clearly understand how our victory today has been achieved.

As Comrade Kim Il Sung, the great hero, instructed us the way ahead of us, we could cut off the chains that bound ankles of our ancestors and ours and attain liberation free from the destiny of slaves.

We ought to express our gratitude to President Kim Il Sung on behalf of our ancestors who shed blood and devoted their lives for today."

In March Juche 64(1975), President Kim Il Sung met Machel, who came to the DPRK again just before his country's independence, and taught him definite orientation and ways for resolving many problems arising in the Mozambican people's struggle to build a new society, taking the experience in the building of a new Korea as an example. He added that he would actively support and encourage the Mozambican people in their struggle for building a new society.

President Kim Il Sung paid attention to making sure that the people of Mozambique in the southern part of faraway Africa took their destiny in their own hands and hew it out in a responsible manner and led them to invariably take the road of independence either during the national liberation struggle or after their independence. His virtue was the noble one that could only be possessed by the great man embracing any peoples turning out in the struggle for building an independent and sovereign state regardless of their race, language and national customs.

Machel was so deeply impressed by the instructions of President Kim Il Sung that he said to his entourage in the plane on the way back to his country as follows:

"The instructions of Comrade Kim Il Sung, who devoted himself day and night for the Mozambican revolution, are the encyclopedia of our Mozambique. We should definitely erect a monument reminiscent of the great Comrade Kim Il Sung in Mozambique. The Mozambican people should never forget him through all ages, and advance as he instructed."

After gaining independence, therefore, President Machel, in his presidential decision on September 3, 1976, made sure that the street before the university, which was the most beautiful street in Maputo, was neatly renovated to be named as Kim Il Sung Street.

Kim Il Sung Street in Mozambique was indeed an immortal monument erected by the revolutionary peoples of the world in praise of the undying exploits the great leader had performed in accomplishing the cause of global independence and his noble virtues.