PhD., Assoc. Prof. Hong Chun Hui, Faculty of History, Kim Il Sung University
2026.7.25.
Chairman Kim Jong Il said:
"Ode to Marshal Kim Il Sung can be called a hymn that sings the praises of his greatness and depicts the firm determination of our service personnel and people to remain faithful to him for ever."
The song Ode to Marshal Kim Il Sung written and widely disseminated by the Korean People's Army Song and Dance Ensemble in the late 1950s is a hymn for devotedly defending the leader which was born to the world under the plan and energetic guidance of Chairman Kim Jong Il.
After the war, to devotedly defend President Kim Il Sung took on importance than any other period of our revolution.
At the time, the modern revisionists who had emerged in the international communist movement spread illusions about the US imperialists and, at the same time, launched a campaign against "worship of individuals" in a bid to stamp out the leader's absolute authority and exploits. They also pressed parties of other countries for it.
Taking advantage of these modern revisionist moves, the anti-Party counterrevolutionary factionalists lurking in our Party raised their heads and continually manoeuvred against the Party and the revolution.
In this grim period, Chairman Kim Jong Il energetically guided the whole composition process with a plan to let the hymn of devotedly defending the leader resound far and wide across the country considering the desire and wish of the Korean people and service personnel to firmly trust and follow President Kim Il Sung only.
On the New Year's Day of 1956, some anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters visited President Kim Il Sung and young Chairman Kim Jong Il for New Year's greeting. They looked back upon the days of their partisan days and sang the song The song of General Kim Il Sung. Listening to their song young Chairman came up with composing a hymn about devotedly defending President.
True to his instructions, writers from the People's Army, helped by the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, composed hymns truthfully reflecting the boundless respect and reverence of the people and service personnel for President Kim Il Sung, who was leading our revolution to victory, and the honor and happiness of his soldiers as well as their loyalty to follow him under his leadership.
After the song was completed, Chairman Kim Jong Il resolutely smashed the sophistry of the anti-Party counterrevolutionary critics to firmly defend the ideological and artistic successes it had achieved and revealed the true nature of their moves.
In February 1958, Chairman Kim Jong Il told the commanding officers of the People's Army that there was a bastard who slandered the verse This morning came from the forest of Paektu that the dawn in Korea broke on the East sea, not on Mt Paektu and criticized the composers for their ignorance of not distinguishing between the east and the west nor to understand the law of nature. Chairman Kim Jong Il said those were all wrong.
Chairman Kim Jong Il stressed that the new dawn of Korea broke on Mt Paektu for President Kim Il Sung founded a revolutionary armed force in the forests of Mt Paektu and led the anti-Japanese armed struggle to victory achieving the historic cause of national liberation and further accented that if it hadn't been for the President's bloody anti-Japanese war fought in the forests of Mt Paektu in the days of national distress when the destiny of the country and nation was at stake, the Korean people couldn't have enjoyed liberation of the country and could not have become the masters of their country as they are today.
He continued that the bastards also criticized the words of the song for being as long as your arm, which is another question as every verse of Ode to Marshal Kim Il Sung wonderfully portrays the sense of boundless respect and admiration of the people and service personnel for the President who is leading the Korean revolution along the victorious track as well as honestly picturing the loyalty of all the public and service personnel to uphold and follow their leader. He then emphasized that it is faith and will of the Korean nation and service personnel to stay loyal to the President's guidance and thus, no simplification is allowed in the song.
After that, he said the critics of Ode to Marshal Kim Il Sung were not ignoramuses about the world at all to completely reveal their ulterior motives who had made dark attempts to smear the prestigious Party and the President and efface the Party's revolutionary tradition.
He instructed to tell the writers and artists of the KPA Song and Dance Ensemble that Ode to Marshal Kim Il Sung was satisfactory and to let them lustily sing the song with doubled courage, which was a speech of confidence and vigor.
Chairman Kim Jong Il said he had been thinking of changing the word "General Kim Il Sung" into "Marshal Kim Il Sung" in the verse of O, our ever-dear leader General Kim Il Sung in the Ode to Marshal Kim Il Sung for the reasons that the public and service personnel admire and worship President Kim Il Sung addressing him Marshal and therefore, if the words were so rewritten, the song would improve because they match the title and clearly distinguish it from The Song of General Kim Il Sung. This way, he even corrected the words in the refrain to make the song perfect as a hymn of defense of the President.
Having personally repaired the refrain of the newly written and performed hymn, Chairman Kim Jong Il arranged it for the concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of the KPA foundation and instructed to take measures to spread the song so that it could be often sung by the people and service personnel.
Therefore, Ode to Marshal Kim Il Sung – the hymn of faith which caught imagination of the people and service personnel was Chairman Kim Jong Il's precious fruit of his absolute belief in President Kim Il Sung and his firm determinations to devotedly safeguard the President.
