War Victory Day: DPRK

-Korean War Witnesses Miracle of Century

 In the world history of wars there is the Korean war (1950-1953) known as a showdown between rifles and A-bombs and a byword for miracle.

 The three-year war was the most trying and severest ordeal for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as it broke out only five years after the Korean people got free from the Japanese military rule (1905-1945) and nearly two years after they founded the Korean People’s Army.

 Having egged the ROK on to launch a sudden armed invasion of the DPRK early on June 25 (Sunday), 1950, across the front along the 38th parallel, the US claimed that breakfast would be had in Haeju, lunch in Pyongyang and dinner in Sinuiju and the DPRK would come to a dead end in 72 hours. There was no comparison between the warring sides in many aspects, such as population, territorial size, economic strength and armaments.

There was no match for the Korean war in view of the scale and density of fire power weapons of the armed forces committed by the US and its 15 satellite states, barbarity of their warfare, and inhumanity of their massacre of local people.

 However, the Korean people did not give in, but rose up heroically to defend their country.

 Three days after the outbreak of the war, the Korean People’s Army completely liberated Seoul, the citadel of the enemy, and destroyed the main force of the ROK army. Four torpedo boats of the KPA navy attacked and sank USS Baltimore, a heavy cruiser nicknamed “moving island”, and damaged a light cruiser off Jumunjin in the East Sea of Korea, performing brilliant feats noteworthy in the world history of naval battles. The air corps of the KPA shot down and damaged scores of latest fighters and bombers including B-29, a strategic bomber much-hyped as “air fortress.”

 KPA troops launched a general offensive to liberate Taejon, routing the US 24th Division or an “invincible division.” Commander Dean was captured by a KPA soldier while on his flight from the city.

 The DPRK, a small country in the Orient that was little known in the world, plunged into an abyss the American empire which boasted about being the “strongest” in the world, and achieved a final win over the latter, which was a historic event that defied the logic.

 The credit goes to the outstanding military ideas, brilliant strategies and tactics and Juche-oriented warfare of President Kim Il Sung, a military genius. The victory also owes much to the strong sense of patriotism and indomitable fighting spirit of the Korean people and service personnel, who fought at the risk of their lives to defend their own things and their own country rallying around their leader.

 The then US President Truman said it is needed to call the Korean war a war rapidly concluded at the end of defeats, rather than a rapidly ended war. MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces in the Far East, confessed that never before had the US been brought down to earth with such a bump since its founding.

- US “Mightiness”: The Myth Exploded in Korea

The US describes the Korean war (1950-1953) that ended in its defeat as a “victorious war” and a “forgotten victory.” Just as truth cannot be turned into falsehood, however, the US defeat etched in history cannot be reversed.

 This is evidenced by the tragic end of US brass hats.

 When it incited the ROK army to start a war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the US declared that the DPRK would be conquered in 72 hours. But from the outset of the war, it suffered setbacks one after another and had to send a number of its brass hats to the Korean front.

Even they couldn’t turn the tide of the war.

Dean, commander of the US 24th Division, the so-called “invincible division,” boasted a wealth of war experience as he fought in Europe during World War II and led his division against the Japanese forces to storm into Manila in the Philippines.

 The seemingly invincible commander failed to save his division from being destroyed on the Korean front, and he himself was captured by a soldier of the Korean People’s Army while on the run for his life in a private’s uniform.

 The fate of the US 8th Army Commander Walker was more tragic.

 He was killed together with many of his officers in an ambush and mine attack by KPA units on the second front formed behind the enemy lines.

As the war lasted, US brass hats were successively sacked.

 The war situation in late 1950 turned more unfavourable to the US in the wake of the shattered “Christmas General Offensive”, which prompted a tumultuous blame game in the US. The White House tried frantically to shift the responsibility to the Pentagon, Republicans did to Democrats, and Truman pointed an accusing finger at MacArthur.

 As a result, the Korean war brought a shameful end to Commander of the UN Forces MacArthur, who had styled himself as a Napoleon in the East.

 He was replaced by Ridgeway and Clark, both of whom failed to escape the fate of their predecessor. Van Fleet, newly appointed US 8th Army commander, was dismissed after being labeled as “incompetent”. US First Marine Corps Commander Smith was nicknamed a “grave commander” because he sent most of his men to the grave.

 As seen above, the US commanders, who had shot to fame emerging victorious around the world, could not but bite the dust on the Korean front.

 The myth of the US “mightiness” changed into bitterness.

  “The Korean war was noteworthy as it left records in many aspects of the world history of wars,” a foreign military expert said. “First of all, it was the first war that ended in defeat on the part of the US which had maintained its position as a superpower in modern world history.

  “The DPRK’s armed forces created such an incredible reality before the world, an outcome so unbelievable that people might take it as accidental from the existing viewpoint on and criteria for warfare. As a military expert, however, I don’t believe any accident in war in any case. Something may happen in nature by accident but there is only inevitability in war where they clash in military power and mental strength.”

-Flag Held by 12 Soldiers

 The flag below is one which flew in the battle to take Kachil Peak near Height 1211 in the eastern sector of the front during the Korean war (1950-1953). Riddled with over 270 holes made by bullets and splinters of bombs and shells, it was carried by one soldier after another–12 in all–who took it over in succession, whenever one fell down, until it reached the top of the height.

 The blood-stained flag, a symbol of the matchless self-sacrificing spirit and heroism of the brave fighters of the Korean People’s Army, is preserved in the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang, capital city of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.