[Page 3] Rodong Sinmun - Friday, August 15, 2025   

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Speech Delivered by the Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un at the Celebrations Marking the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Homeland

Dear Comrades and Friends!
Beloved Citizens of Pyongyang and All People of the Nation!
Heroic Service Personnel of the People’s Army!

Today, we embrace anew the profound emotion of 80 years ago in this Liberation Square, once throbbing with the boundless joy of millions welcoming the return of the homeland.

This commemorative day, reflecting on the sacred path of our state’s rebirth and development, serves as an illumination of history and a proud summation. It reveals how Korea’s 80-year journey—forged through the immortal spirit that transformed the people’s destiny, the arduous struggles of our revolutionary forerunners, and the indomitable history of new Korea—has positioned itself at the pinnacle of dignity and glory.

At this significant moment, in the name of all descendants who have cherished precious lives upon this land of freedom and prosperity inherited from them, I pay sublime tribute to the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters and patriotic martyrs who devoted everything to the sacred struggle for the independence and prosperity of the homeland.

I extend warm greetings to all people across the nation who, with fervent love and boundless wisdom for our precious and sacred homeland, are creating a new era of strength and development, and to all service personnel of our armed forces.

We also solemnly remember the heroic combat feats of the Red Army soldiers who shed their warm blood for our people’s liberation cause and pay sacred tribute to the martyrs.

Furthermore, I convey warm greetings to the esteemed guests from Rossiya—including Comrade Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of the Rossiya Federation, who celebrates our Liberation Day as a shared holiday of both nations with profound trust and camaraderie, and Vyacheslav Volodin, who visited our country—as well as to our dear Rossiyan comrades-in-arms and fraternal people.

Comrades!

August 15, 1945, marks the turning point that restored the Korean people’s lifeblood-like independent dignity and is a day of great victory.

Though many nations and peoples suffered tragic fates under the conquest wars waged by imperial powers across centuries, no nation endured such utter trampling and wholesale plunder as Korea did under Japanese colonial rule.

It was the liberation of the homeland that halted the flow of national ruin—a history steeped in the greatest humiliation of our 5,000-year heritage and the people’s searing resentment and sorrow.

We commemorate the liberation of the homeland not merely as a joyous transition from colony to independent state, but as a legacy to be reverently remembered across generations—for it embodies the noble spirit and sacrifice of the Korean people.

The period of Japanese colonial rule is recorded as both a history of Korean suffering and a chronicle of resistance, written in blood by our people—unyielding in patriotism and pride, refusing all compromise with injustice.

Though Japanese imperialism unleashed unprecedented oppression and atrocities to eradicate even Korea’s soul and spirit, they could not break our people’s steadfast spirit of independence. The patriotic anti-Japanese struggle to reclaim national sovereignty, embracing sacrifice, never ceased for a moment.

The armed struggle waged by Korea’s finest sons and daughters against Japanese militarism—then dominating Asia—was a bloody battle of life and death. Bearing the destiny of the homeland and future generations, they endured harsh trials and bitter sacrifices. The achievements of the anti-Japanese revolution, consistently adhering to an independent stance, stand as clear proof of the self-reliant path pioneered by the Korean people.

The revolutionary character and political significance of our liberation cause lie in this truth: it was not a coincidence of history, but a triumph of the Juche spirit, upheld through the sacrifices of the all-people anti-Japanese forces.

With August 15, our people reclaimed all they had lost—sovereignty, territory, resources, history, and culture—and finally gained every possibility for freedom and shaping their destiny. They strode forth proudly as masters on the path of great foundation-building for democratic development and happiness.

Though eight decades have passed and history’s chapters have turned, the weight and value of August 15—achieved through our people’s will and struggle—remain absolute and undiminished.

Comrades!

Today, we greet the 80th anniversary of liberation with infinite pride and glory, having inscribed before our revolutionary forerunners, the homeland, and posterity the most dignified and sacred achievements.

A nation may have a great history carved with life, but without generations staking their lives to safeguard it, and without struggles to defend and glorify the precious legacy bequeathed by forerunners, its bloodline will be severed. It will lose even the right to honor its glorious memories.

That we celebrate Liberation Day so grandly today is because our struggle to build a powerful and prosperous nation for eternity upon this land soaked with the forerunners’ red blood has been truly dignified.

August 15 is both the day our nation’s centuries-old yearning for freedom and independence was realized, and the day the struggle began to end the history of suffering forever by building a powerful nation.

The new historic mission of Korea’s communists and people, commencing from August 15, was from the outset an immensely difficult task. It involved unprecedented pioneering that transcended existing dogmas and formulas, alongside life-or-death battles against hostile nations wielding counterrevolutionary schemes.

Though the forces seeking to reverse our social progress after liberation crumbled, imperialist aggression—through wars of invasion, schemes of division, and neocolonial policies aimed at subjugating newly independent nations—coupled with pressure and interference from dominationist forces seeking to eternalize the gap between advanced and backward countries, created immeasurable challenges and hurdles.

Yet all this proved powerless before the Korean people’s fierce self-respect and tenacity.

The Juche conviction to never again be violated by foreign powers proved mightier than tyranny and brute force. The patriotic zeal and effort to build a dignified and happy life overcame all hardships and trials.

Amid those harsh decades, the glorious chronicle of building a prosperous and powerful nation—politically, economically, and militarily, in our own way—vividly inscribed both the vitality of the Juche-oriented line as the immutable principle and essence of our state-building, and the unique fortitude of the Korean people: "We may abandon life, but never our dignity."

The pain endured and hardships suffered on this path—to defend our chosen ideals and system and make our homeland a powerful and prosperous nation—could fill countless volumes.

Yet our people possess a special pride in their struggle’s noble rewards and in the history and reality they have forged—a pride so profound they remember it with glory and happiness.

This is the unparalleled pride of the Korean people: They themselves established and safeguard the power guaranteeing their independent lives and future. They themselves hold aloft mighty strength inviolable by any force. They build prosperity in their own way.

Precisely with that strength and pride, our homeland has grown into a mighty fortress firmly defending independence, justice, dignity, and peace. It crushes the imperialists’ high-handedness and brute force seeking to reverse history’s tide, making an indelible contribution to humanity’s liberation cause.

The emotion and pride of our people—celebrating the 80th anniversary of liberation while building, through their own struggle, strength, and wisdom, a powerful and prosperous nation where the aspirations of revolutionary forerunners and the brilliance of their youth radiate vibrantly across the homeland—are boundless.

The 80th anniversary of the homeland’s liberation is a monument to Korea’s prosperity, erected upon the foundation of Juche independence that burned away subjugation and humiliation. It is a watershed of dignity and glory, writing anew the homeland’s status and prestige through unwavering Juche consciousness and unyielding struggle.

Comrades!

As we reflect on the 80-year journey since that historic day marking new Korea’s birth, what overwhelms us once more is boundless reverence for our great people.

In our memory reside too many names—comrades who upheld the homeland’s victory and glory with militant feats and merits across different eras. In our hearts surge the spirits of too many heroes who sleep in this earth—dreams, love, and youth eternally alive.

The unique fortitude of this nation’s people—who deem it glory, not sorrow, to stake their lives and precious children on the path for the homeland and revolution, even if sons and daughters do not return—has been passed down unbroken and untarnished for a full century, from the days of anti-Japanese struggle to today.

Seen now, this is no fleeting sentiment or impulse born of a specific historical period like the anti-Japanese revolution, nor of that era’s stern and fierce environment. It is the noble outlook on life of our people—who value lives devoted to the homeland’s victory and glory as most precious and happy. It is the manifestation of the Korean people’s greatness: a blood-deep spirit and tradition, ever-continuing and inevitably inherited.

This immortal continuity is Korea’s foremost excellence and greatness.

History and reality show with utmost clarity: Who upholds this nation’s power? What faith and spirit safeguard the revolution’s continuity? Where lies the source of Korea’s might?

By nature, the popular masses are just and mighty beings. Yet nowhere on earth exists a people as just, tenacious, and proud as the Korean people.

Such a people can never be broken. A state built and upheld by such patriots, such a proud people, is eternally powerful and immortal.

Availing myself of this occasion, I pay sublime tribute and heartfelt greetings to our people, infinitely faithful to the historic mission and duty of their era with truest, unchanging love for the homeland and unyielding fortitude.

Comrades and Friends!

The record of the decisive battle for Korea’s liberation is vividly inscribed with the exploits of Red Army soldiers who fought heroically on the front lines of the world anti-fascist war. Our people vividly remember the noble internationalist feats of the Rossiyan people’s finest sons and daughters.

The just ideals and efforts of the Rossiyan people—in supporting the national liberation struggle of fraternal peoples against imperialism and colonialism—are a precious heritage of DPRK-Rossiya relations, cemented and deepened by blood.

Today, DPRK-Rossiya friendly relations are developing into an alliance unprecedented in history, growing stronger in the common struggle to block the revival of neo-Nazism and defend sovereignty, security, and international justice.

Our two nations have always stood on the right side of history; today, too, through steadfast struggle, they champion humanity’s aspirations and demands—opposing hegemony, upholding fairness and justice.

This year, humanity marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, which crushed fascism’s bid to enslave the world and halted its criminal atrocities.

Yet today, dangerous acts aimed at erasing and reversing the outcomes of the world anti-fascist war and national liberation struggles—won at terrible cost in destruction and sacrifice—are brazenly unfolding on the international stage. Imperialists’ extreme arrogance in trampling the rights and interests of sovereign nations grows more serious than ever.

Crushing the reckless, wanton maneuvers of forces seeking to revive lost political dominance through endless wars and blackmail—dragging Europe, Asia, and the whole world toward right-wing extremism and unipolarity—is a historic task that peace-loving and justice-bound nations and peoples must willingly shoulder. This demands the powerful solidarity and joint struggle of the progressive camp.

Korea and Rossiya are now writing a new chapter of just history from the frontline of the struggle for national dignity, sovereignty, world peace, and stability.

The strength of DPRK-Rossiya unity—founded on noble ideals, genuine friendship, and traditions of revolutionary support sealed in blood—is boundless.

Our Party and government will remain ever faithful to the mission entrusted by the times and history for independence and justice. On this path, the fraternal peoples of our two nations will forever share the sacred renown of victors.

Comrades!

This nation, built and nurtured by a great people, continues its dynamic advance toward prosperity and flourishing despite history’s stern challenges and trials.

Our generation’s duty before the forerunners who laid down their lives for the powerful and eternally prosperous homeland of today and tomorrow, and before the descendants who will live on this land for generations, is truly weighty.

For the great powerful nation! For the boundless well-being and prosperity of our beloved state, shining eternally for posterity! Let us continue to overcome every challenge before us without flinching.

With strength forged in struggle, with our people’s unique pride and mettle, let us lift our homeland to even greater heights.

The great history of the Korean people’s dignity and glory will shine forever through millennia and generations.

Long Live the Great Korean People!
Long Live Our Glorious Homeland, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!