Entering the 1940s, the Japanese imperialists stepped up the desperate, large-scale "punitive" offensive against the Korean People's Revolutionary Army than ever before while making frantic efforts to spread the flames of war to Southeast Asia in an attempt to realize their wild ambition "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere".

In those days the Korean people had prepared firm internal forces to fight the final battle against the Japanese imperialists through the energetic anti-Japanese armed struggle under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung.

Meanwhile the Japanese imperialists could not satisfy the demand for combat forces and munitions rapidly growing according to the extended battle front and were faced with strong resistance of the Asian people.

With a scientific penetration into the general situation, the President convened a meeting of military and political cadres of the KPRA at Xiaohaerbaling, Dunhua County on August 10 and 11, Juche 29 (1940) and delivered a historical report "On Preparing for the Great Event of National Liberation".

He in the report stressed that full preparations for the final battle should be made to vanquish Japanese imperialism once and for all and thoroughgoing preparations should also be made for founding a revolutionary party, people's government and people's armed forces in the liberated country and for consistently pushing ahead with the revolution.

He also advanced it as an important strategic task to preserve and accumulate the force of the KPRA, the backbone of the Korean revolution, and train its members to be able political and military cadres and, at the same time, to firmly prepare the people politically and ideologically.

In order to carry out this task with success, he put forward a new strategic policy on switching over large-unit operations of the KPRA to small-unit actions.

The KPRA went over from large-unit operations to small-unit actions to give heavy blows to the Japanese imperialists in succession with nimble guerrilla tactics.

The President wrote in his reminiscences "With the Century" as follows:

The Xiaohaerbaling meeting was a historic meeting that decided to change our strategic line at a new turning point of our revolution, like the Mingyuegou conference in December 1931 and the Nanhutou conference in February 1936 that also set forth important strategic lines for the armed struggle against the Japanese.