Central Report Meeting Marks KPA’s Official 85th Anniversary

A photo which appeared top-center of page 2 of the April 25, 2017 edition of the WPK daily organ Rodong Sinmun shows a view of the platform and venue of an April 24, 2017 central report meeting commemorating the 85th anniversary of the KPA (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

A central report meeting commemorating the official 85th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Army [KPA] was held on April 24 (Monday) at the People’s Palace of Culture in central Pyongyang.  Attending the meeting were a variety of senior Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK], KPA and DPRK Government officials, Cabinet Ministers and Commission Chairs, functionaries and cadres of various national institutions, officers and personnel of the KPA and internal security services including the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces [KPISF], managers and functionaries of Pyongyang-based production units and institutions, citizens and security personnel who have received national merits and awards, the head of the Pyongyang branch of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front, foreign Korean delegations visiting the DPRK, foreign defense attaches and diplomatic personnel stationed in Pyongyang and other foreign nationals currently visiting the DPRK.

SPA Presidium President and WPK Political Bureau Presidium Member Kim Yong Nam bows to acknowledge participants, as other senior DPRK officials file onto the platform, at an April 24, 2017 central report meeting marking the KPA’s 85th anniversary (Photo: Korean Central Television).

View of participants at the People’s Palace of Culture in central Pyongyang, the venue of an April 24, 2017 central report meeting marking the KPA’s official 85th anniversary (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).

Among those who came out to the platform for the central report meeting were: Supreme People’s Assembly [SPA] Presidium President Kim Yong Nam (Kim Yo’ng-nam), KPA General Political Department Director and State Affairs Commission Vice Chairman VMar Hwang Pyong So (Hwang Pyo’ng-so), DPRK Premier and State Affairs Commission Vice Chairman Pak Pong Ju (Pak Pong-chu), WPK Vice Chairman for Workers’ and Social Organizations and State Affairs Commission Vice Chairman Choe Ryong Hae (Ch’oe Ryong-hae), Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Gen. Pak Yong Sik (Pak Yo’ng-sik), WPK Vice Chairman for and Director of the WPK Propaganda and Agitation Department Kim Ki Nam (Kim Ki-nam), WPK Vice Chairman for Science and Education and SPA Chairman Choe Thae Bok (Ch’oe T’ae-pok), WPK Vice Chairman for and Director of the WPK International Affairs Department Ri Su Yong (Ri Su-yo’ng; a.k.a. Ri Chol), DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho (Ri Yo’ng-ho), WPK Vice Chairman for and Director of the WPK Munitions Industry Department Ri Man Gon (Ri Man-ko’n), WPK Vice Chairman for Intelligence and South Korean Affairs and Director of the WPK United Front Department Kim Yong Chol (Kim Yo’ng-ch’o’l), SPA Presidium Vice President and Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Country Vice Chairman Yang Hyong Sop (Yang Hyo’ng-sop), Minister of the People’s Security Gen. Choe Pu Il (Ch’oe Pu-il), DPRK Vice Premier and State Planning Commission Chairman Ro Tu Chol (Ro Tu-ch’o’l), WPK Organization Guidance Department Senior Deputy Director Jo Yon Jun (Cho Yo’n-chun), SPA Presidium Vice President and Korea Social Democratic Party Central Committee Chairman Kim Yong Dae (Kim Yo’ng-tae), 1st Vice Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Gen. So Hong Chang (So Hong-ch’an), KPA General Propaganda Department Director and KPA General Political Department Director Lt. Gen. Ryom Chol Song (Ryo’m Ch’o’l-so’ng), KPA Navy Commander VAdm Kim Myong Sik (Kim Myo’ng-sik), KPA Air and Anti-Air Forces Commander Colonel-General Kim Kwang Hyok (Kim Kwang-hyok) and Guard Command Director Gen. Yun Jong Rin (Yun Cho’ng-rin).

Minister of the People’s Armed Forces General Pak Yong Sik delivers the report (Photo: Rodong Sinmun/KCNA).

Kim Ki Nam presided over the meeting.  Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Gen. Pak Yong Sik delivered the report.  According to KCNA, Gen. Pak said:

The 85-year-long history of the KPA is the glorious road under which it has developed into the army of the Party and the leader and a-match-for-a- hundred Paektusan (Mt. Paektu) revolutionary strong army under the banners of Chuch’e and So’ngun (military-first), weathering ordeals of the revolution.

It is the period of the great victory as the KPA has emerged ever-victorious in the serious showdown with imperialism and US and reliably defended the sovereignty of the country, the destiny of the people, socialism and the global peace.

The President strengthened the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army into a model revolutionary army in the era of independence and powerful leadership core of the Chuch’e revolution during the anti-Japanese war and defeated the gangster-like Japanese imperialists through the nation-wide anti-Japanese national liberation struggle centered on armed struggle.

He successfully accomplished the cause of building regular armed forces on the basis of the So’ngun (military-first) tradition of Paektu after the liberation of the country and inflicted disgraceful defeat on the US imperialist aggressors who boasted of being the “strongest” in the world and defended the freedom and independence of the country by leading the Fatherland Liberation War to victory.

It is his greatest feat that he built the matchless revolutionary armed forces with two pistols and thus provided the Korean people with a powerful treasured sword for shaping out the independent destiny and laid a strong military base for guaranteeing the destiny and prosperity of the nation forever.

The KPA, which was founded and covered its glorious path under his leadership, reached a new high stage in its development under the guidance of Kim Jong Il (Kim Cho’ng-il), the great So’ngun (military-first) brilliant commander.

He set forth it as the general duty of building the army to model the whole army on Kimilsungism, energetically led the struggle to realize it and thus developing it into the perfect army of the leader and the party.

The KPA has greeted the most glorious era in the cause of building the army of Chuch’e thanks to respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n), another peerlessly great man of Paektu.

The situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula is so tense that a nuclear war may break out due to the frantic war drills of the US imperialists and their vassal forces for aggression.

It is the invariable principled stand and mode of struggle for the Paektusan (Mt. Paektu) revolutionary powerful army to make prompt retaliatory strikes at the provocateurs of the enemies and answer their aggression war with the great national reunification war of justice.

If the enemies dare opt for the military adventure despite our repeated warnings, our armed forces will wipe the strongholds of aggression off the surface of the earth through the powerful preemptive nuclear attacks as they have already declared and thus accomplish the historic cause of national reunification without fail.

The State Stamp Bureau under the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication issued a commemorative stamp to mark the KPA’s 85th anniversary on April 24 (Photo: Rodong Sinmun).