Kim Il Sung’s Career Seen through Figures (1)

The following figures can help to understand what kind of person Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founding father of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was.

Walking One Thousand-ri at the Age of 12

In March 1923 when Kim Il Sung was studying at a primary school in Badaogou in Northeast China, his father Kim Hyong Jik told him to go back to his native home at Mangyongdae in Korea, saying: A man born in Korea must have a good knowledge of Korea; if you get to understand clearly while you are in Korea why it has been ruined, that will be a great achievement; share the fate of the people in your home town and experience how miserable they are; then you will see what you should do.

Kim Il Sung set out on the journey. He had to travel 1 000 ri (approximately 250 miles–Tr.) all alone. To make matters worse, for more than half the journey he would have to walk over steep, craggy mountains which were virtually uninhabited; even in full daylight beasts of prey prowled about there. At that time he was merely 12 years old.

Two years later, while studying in Korea, he made a determination never to return home before he won back the country from the Japanese imperialists. Then he crossed the Amnok River again and started his revolutionary activities.

On October 17, 1926, while attending Hwasong Uisuk School that was set up to train political and military cadres for the Independence Army, he formed the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU), the first revolutionary organization of Korea, with young communists of the new generation. The immediate task of the DIU was to defeat Japanese imperialism and achieve the liberation and independence of Korea, and its final objective was to build socialism and communism in Korea and, further, destroy all imperialism and build communism throughout the world.