March 23, 2007 is the 90^th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean National Association by the indomitable patriotic revolutionary of Korea, Kim Hyong Jik(1894-1926), father of great President Kim Il Sung.

Following are the excerpts from President Kim Il Sung’s Reminisces "With the Century". Volume I, Chapter. 

President Kim Il Sung's father Kim Hyong Jik

(1894-1926)

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“Jiwon” (Aim High!) was my father’s lifelong motto….

When I was old enough to understand the world, my father began to teach me how I should love my country, saying that in order to become a patriot I should aim high.

“Aim High!” means what it says.

There is nothing extraordinary about a father who teaches his son to aim high. One cannot succeed in a venture unless one has a noble ideal and a high ambition and works tirelessly.

But “Aim High!” has nothing in common with worldly preaching about personal glory or a successful career; it implies a revolutionary outlook on life in which genuine happiness is sought in the struggle for one’s country and nation, and an unbreakable revolutionary spirit to lib­erate the country by fighting through the generations…..

Once my father said to my grandparents, “What is the use of living if I cannot win my country’s independence? Even if I am to be torn to pieces I must fight and defeat the Japanese. If I fall in battle, my son will continue the fight; if my son cannot accomplish the cause, my grandson must fight until we win our nation’s independence.”

Later, I remembered these words when the anti-Japanese armed struggle, which I had believed we would win in three or four years, dragged on. As I lived through the long years of tragedy caused by national division after liberation, the division that compelled the north and the south to take opposite courses, I reminded myself of my father’s profound words.

What he said always reflected his idea of “Aim High!”, his convic­tion and his thought and aspiration for national liberation.

In spite of his family’s poverty, my father went to Sungsil Middle School with a strong resolve to achieve his idea of “Aim High!” ….

Under his guidance a reading circle and a single-hearted friendship association were formed at Sungsil Middle School. These associations inculcated patriotism in the pupils and, at the same time, worked hard to enlighten the popular masses in Pyongyang and the surrounding area. In December 1912 they organized a school strike against the inhumane treatment and exploitative practices perpetrated by the school authori­ties.

During the school holidays my father used to travel around Anju, Kangdong, Sunan, Uiju and other places in North and South Phyongan Provinces and Hwanghae Province, enlightening the masses and recruit­ing comrades.

The greatest achievement made by my father at Sungsil Middle School was to find many comrades with whom he could share life and death.

Many of his classmates were not only friends of my father but also ready to take up the common cause with him in order to shape the des­tiny of the country and nation.

They were all young men with foresight and a high reputation, men of great ability, wide knowledge and out­standing personality…..

My father left Sungsil Middle School early and began to teach at Sunhwa School in Mangyongdae and then at Myongsin School in Kangdong, applying himself to the education of the younger generation and to rallying his comrades. He explained that he had left middle school with a view to concentrating on the practical struggle and to extending the theatre of his revolutionary activities.

During a school holiday in 1916 he toured Jiandao in northeast China. I do not know whom he got in touch with, but he went to Shang­hai from Jiandao and there he contacted Sun Yat-sen’s nationalist revo­lutionary group….

My father toured Jiandao and Shanghai to obtain a firsthand knowl­edge of the independence movement abroad of which he had heard rumors, recruiting new comrades and defining his policies and strate­gies for the subsequent years…..

The situation in Jiandao reaffirmed my father’s belief that Korea’s independence should be achieved by Koreans themselves. After his visit to Jiandao, my father worked day and night to enlighten the masses and recruit comrades.

By that time our family had moved from Mangyongdae to Ponghwa-ri, Kangdong.

There he taught at Myongsin School during the day­time and enlightened the masses at night school, as he had done in Mangyongdae. He used to return home very late…..

Many independence fighters visited my father at Ponghwa-ri. He himself traveled frequently around North and South Phyongan Provinces and Hwanghae Province to visit his comrades. In the course of this, hardcore elements were trained and a mass foundation for the independence movement was laid.

On the basis of these preparations, he and other patriotic indepen­dence fighters such as Jang Il Hwan, Pae Min Su and Paek Se Bin formed the Korean National Association at Ri Po Sik’s house at Haktanggol, Pyongyang on March 23, 1917.

The young members of the association cut their fingers and wrote “Korea’s independence” and “Resolved to give our lives” with their blood.

The Korean National Association was a secret organization with the aim of achieving national independence and establishing a truly modern state through the efforts of the unified Korean nation. It was one of the largest anti-Japanese underground revolutionary organiza­tions of Korean patriots at home or abroad at the time of the March First Popular Uprising…..

It was a revolutionary organization that stood firmly against impe­rialism and for independence. Its manifesto stated that, in view of the clear evidence that European and American forces were heading East and that they would soon rival Japan for hegemony, the association must, by taking advantage of their rivalry, promote the rallying of the masses and preparations for achieving Korea’s independence through the efforts of the Korean people.

As is clear from the manifesto, the Korean National Association, unlike those who pinned their hopes on foreign forces, adopted the independent stand that Korea’s independence should be won by the Korean people themselves.

The Korean National Association drew up a great plan for sending its members to Jiandao and developing that area into the strategic base for the independence movement.

The association had a closely-knit network of organizations. It admitted to its membership only well-prepared, tested and well-selected patriots, had an organizational system that worked from top to bottom and used code words for communications between its members. Its secret documents were compiled in code.

It planned to hold a general meeting of its members every year on the day of starting a new school year at Sungsil Middle School. It was thoroughly concealed by means of such lawful fringe organizations as the School Association, Stone Monument Association and Home-town Association, It had area leaders under it and posted correspondents to Beijing and Dandong for the pur­pose of liaising with people working abroad.

The association had a solid mass foundation. It drew its member­ship from among workers, peasants, teachers, students, soldiers (of the Independence Army), shopkeepers, religious believers and artisans— people from all walks of life.

Its organizational network spread through­out the country and even reached Beijing, Shanghai, Jilin, Fusong, Lin-jiang, Changbai, Liuhe, Kuandian, Dandong, Huadian and Xingjing in China…..

The Korean National Association was the result of many years of my father’s energetic organizational and propaganda activities at home and abroad after the annexation. He planned to build up the movement on a large scale on the strength of the organization.

But the organization was put down harshly by the Japanese imperi­alists. In the autumn of 1917 the enemy discovered a clue concerning the organization.

One windy day three policemen fell upon my father as he taught at Myongsin School and arrested him….

From the day following my father’s arrest the Christians living in Ponghwa-ri gathered at Myongsin School early every morning and prayed for his release….

Whenever I asked my mother when father would return, she would answer that he would return soon. One day she took me to the Swing Park on Mangyong Hill.

As she sat on the swing holding me in her arms, she said, “Jung Son, the ice floes on the River Taedong have melt­ed away and the trees have produced green leaves, but your father hasn’t returned home. He was fighting to win back his country. How can that be a crime? You must grow up quickly and take revenge on the enemy for your father.... You must grow up to be a hero and win back the country.” I answered that I would do so, come what may.

After that she visited the prison many times without my knowl­edge, but she said nothing about it when she returned home.

One day she took me in the direction of the city, saying that she was going to Phalgol to have her cotton ginned. She left the cotton at her mother’s house at Chilgol on the way, asking her mother to have it ginned, and then took me to Pyongyang jail.

My grandmother told her daughter to go without me, saying that a child too young to understand the world should not see a prison. If I saw my father behind bars, how frightened I should be! She was dead against her taking me to the prison. At that time I was six years old….

The visitors’ room was dim, screened from the sunshine. The air in the room was thick and oppressive.

Even in such an atmosphere my father was smiling as usual. He was delighted to see me, and praised my mother for having taken me with her. The gaunt face of my father who wore prison clothes defied instant recognition. His face, neck, hands, feet and all the rest of his body were scarred and wounded. …

My visit to my father in prison was a great event for me. I under­stood why my mother had taken me with her to the prison. The physical wounds to my father made me feel to the marrow of my bones how fiendish was Japanese imperialism. Those wounds gave me a much more real and visual image of Japanese imperialism than the image provided by numerous statesmen and historians through their analysis and assessment of it….

The wounds remained in my mind throughout the period of my rev­olutionary struggle against the Japanese. The shock I received on that visit still has a strong effect on me.

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