The Army-People Unity that Brought about the Victory in the War

President Kim Il Sung said:

"We could win victory in the Fatherland Liberation War because the service personnel and people fought bravely in the same trench."

When the war broke out, it was customary in the world history of war that soldiers went to battle and citizens took refuge.

But during the Fatherland Liberation War, our army and people became comrades-in-arms and brothers at the front and in the rear and fought together for the victory.

As the destiny of colonial slavery would not be repeated only when the fatherland liberated by President Kim Il Sung was defended, the army and people of the DPRK fought against the U.S. imperialist aggressors together in the same trench for the purpose of defending the country and brought about the myth of victory in the war of heroic Korea by dint of the great unity between the army and the people and the great unity of the army and the people.

The struggle of the local people to defend Kumgang Bridge during the Fatherland Liberation War is an example of how the army and people of the DPRK fought in the same trench.

Kumgang Stream, which flows with water from the valleys of Mt. Kumgang, is an unusually large river in this area, and the bridge across the river was large and long.

The aerial bandits of the U.S. imperialists, who knew that the transportation of goods to important heights of the eastern part of the front including Height 1211 by truck were only possible through Kumgang Bridge, so they poured bombs into this bridge like a flock of jackdaws all day and night.

In order to send more shells and even a grain of rice to the front, local people from Kumgang organized a death-defying corps for Kumgang Bridge and turned out as one in the struggle to defend the bridge.

Though the enemy made desperate efforts by pouring tens of thousands of bombs and shells a day, the local people lived in the shelter around the bridge and restored it when the bridge was destroyed by the bombing of enemy planes.

Especially when the transportation to the front was interrupted by unprecedented floods in recent decades and the bombing of the enemy was intensified as never before, they jumped into the raging river with a rope at their waist, and when one fell, the next took over the rope, and finally, with a rope tied across the river, the bridge was laid to ensure the transportation to the front.

When one pillar of the bridge collapsed due to the aerial bombardment of the enemy planes and transport vehicles running to the front were no longer able to advance, they broke the ice with logs on their shoulders, jumped into the river, crossed the logs under the bridge beams collapsed, and supported them with their shoulders and backs to ensure transportation.

Thanks to the people who defended the Kumgang Bridge at the cost of their lives even at the dangerous moment when the formation of enemy planes dropped napalm bombs, hurrah for victory could always be heard at the heights of the country including Height 1211.

Therefore, a foreigner who came to our country during the Fatherland Liberation War said with confidence that he couldn't be able to sort out who were soldiers and citizens in the DPRK and the US imperialists would never be able to defeat the Korean people who were firmly united to fight.

In his reminiscences "With the Century", President Kim Il Sung said that the tradition of assisting the army and the army-people unity formed during the anti-Japanese armed struggle has been expanded and consolidated into an invincible one through the days of the great Fatherland Liberation War. He continued that victory of the DPRK with a short history against the "Superpower" on the earth was due to fact that the entire people were mobilized and fought with a united force between army and people on our side, while the enemy side mobilized only military force.

There are not a few difficulties that lie on the way of our advance today.

But the myth of victory in the war of heroic Korea that defeated an A-bomb with a rifle shows the noble truth that no force on earth can defeat the united strength of the army and people.

Our people and the service personnel, who are firmly united in one mind and purpose to achieve the prosperity of the country, will bravely overcome all obstacles and write a brilliant page of victory in the history of the development of the DPRK like the defenders of the country in the 1950s.