Immortal Nine-Year-Old Girl

President Kim Il Sung said:

"Kim Kum Sun died at the age of nine, but she is immortal. Though her life was short as a flash of lightning, she had reached the acme of mental development and set a perfect example of an honourable life."

During the arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, all the Korean people turned out in the struggle against the vicious Japanese imperialists under the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung. Among the honourable ranks were young girls under ten like Kim Kum Sun.

In the early 1930s, the Korean children in Jiandao, northeast China, occupied by the Japanese imperialists, formed revolutionary organizations such as Children's Corps, Children's Vanguards and Children's Expeditionary Corps, and joined the fight against the Japanese aggressors.

Kim Kum Sun, who had grown up under the revolutionary influence of her parents, attended the school of the Children's Corps in Beidong, Wangyugou and carried out various tasks given by the organization with credit, especially setting conspicuous examples in the activities of the children's art troupe.

She met President Kim Il Sung when she was eight in Juche22(1933) at the Xiaowangqing guerrilla base.

President Kim Il Sung said that it must have cost her a great deal of trouble to come all that way, and asked if it was hard to cross so many high passes and if it would have been nice to stay at home with her parents.

Then she answered: It would be nice to do so, but that way it would be a long time for me to become a grown-up. I want to grow up as soon as possible to fight to liberate Korea.

Like this, although she was young, her ideological preparedness to devote her whole life to the struggle for the liberation of the country was so matured for her age.

After she came to the guerrilla base, she entered the school of the Children's Corps in Macun. She was called "Black eye" or "Macun hawfinch" because her eyes were black and she was of small build.

Despite the hard times of the anti-Japanese struggle, President Kim Il Sung held the members of the Children's Corps, the future of the country, in his embrace and trained them to become reliable revolutionaries. He bestowed great love on them and never hesitated to fight a battle if it was to provide them with food and clothes.

Thanks to his warm care, they all grew up to be staunch fighters and so did Kim Kum Sun.

As a member of the children's art troupe, she was good at singing and especially tap-dancing. She was loved by the guerrillas and the people at the base and her lovely singing and dancing gave pleasure and courage to them. True to the advice of President Kim Il Sung, she, together with her troupe, went to faraway northern Manchuria to give performances before the Chinese anti-Japanese fighters, making a great contribution to rousing them for a joint struggle against the Japanese imperialists. She also participated in several battles including the one to defend the Xiaowangqing guerrilla zone to help the guerrillas fight against the Japanese invaders by shouting revolutionary slogans and singing revolutionary songs with her fellow members of the Children's Corps.

In autumn, Juche 23(1934), the nine-year-old girl was arrested by the Japanese military police at Baicaogou after carrying out the mission of delivering a classified document from a revolutionary organization in Yaoyinggou to an enemy-held area.

When they knew that she had come from a guerrilla base, the enemy thought that they could get information about the base easily from her because she was only nine years old. At first, they gave her food and sweet-talked her but in vain. She neither yielded to their threats and brutal torture, nor uttered a single word about the information of the guerrilla base.

When the enemy threatened to kill her, she retorted, "Shame on you! I will never speak to you bandits."

Unable to get anything from her in any way, the Japanese grew angry and decided to put her to death.

The people, who saw the young girl, covered in blood and gore, dragged to the place of execution, gritted their teeth in indignation. But Kum Sun shouted to those who felt so sorry for her, "Why are you crying, dear fathers and mothers? Don't cry. Our revolutionary army will surely wipe out the enemy. You should fight staunchly until the day when our motherland is liberated!"

Then she shouted, "Down with the Japanese imperialists! Long live the Korean revolution!"

Her last but fiery speech was an epitome of her indomitable faith and summed up the nine years of her life, short yet immortal career.

The sad news of her death made the revolutionary masses in the Wangqing area indignant enough. A solemn ceremony in her memory was held in Yaoyinggou. Enraged young men and women from all the counties of east Manchuria joined the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, pledging to take revenge upon the enemy.

A magazine connected with the Communist International and Chinese and Japanese publications reported the achievements of the young heroine unprecedented in the history of the liberation struggle of the oppressed nations in the world. Her heroic life was retold under the title of Short Biography of a Young Girl Martyr.

Kim Kum Sun died at the age of nine, but she is immortal. Though she was of an age to play on her mother's affection, she reached the acme of mental development and set a perfect example of an honourable life.

In order to add eternal lustre to her heroic life, President Kim Il Sung had a measure taken to rename the then Sinuiju Namsong Senior Middle School as Kim Kum Sun Middle School and had her statue built in the campus.

Kim Kum Sun is immortal in the memory of the Korean people as a young heroine and a proud daughter of the nation.