President Kim Il Sung proclaimed the foundation of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards, a powerful militia force, to the world on January 14, Juche 48 (1959).

Present at the meeting were Kim Yong Il, Kim Yong Chun, Kim Kyok Sik, officials of armed forces organs, ministries and national institutions and commanding officers and members of the guards in Pyongyang.

The meeting heard a congratulatory letter sent by the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea to all the commanding officers and members of the red guards.

The letter said that the foundation of the red guards provided a sure guarantee for firmly establishing an all-people, nationwide defence system with the People's Army as the core and reliably protecting the sovereignty of the country and nation and the socialist gains from the imperialist reactionaries' invasion.

General Secretary Kim Jong Il has developed in depth the President's idea of building militia forces of Juche-type as required by the times and the revolutionary development and saw to it that the politico-ideological, military and technical might of the red guards was augmented in every way, the letter noted, and went on:

The above-said red guards along with the People's Army, the elite force faithful to the Party and the leader and armed with modern military science and technology and latest military and technological equipment, provides a sure guarantee for the security of the socialist country and the victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche.

Kim Song Gyu, department director of the WPK Central Committee, in a report said that the red guards has demonstrated its might as a matchless force capable of undertaking a coordinated operation with a regular army and strong enough to beat back any imperialist aggressors independently.

He called on the members of the red guards to firmly arm themselves with the Juche-based war methods of the WPK, holding a rifle in one hand and a hammer or a sickle or a pen in the other, get ready to successfully carry out any military duty while bringing about great innovations and leap forward in production and construction with the torch for effecting a new great revolutionary surge held high.