Pyongyang, December 24 (KCNA) -- Leader Kim Jong Il was an illustrious commander who creditably carried forward the tradition of Songun (army-first) leadership, the Juche-based revolutionary tradition which is an eternal treasure of the Korean revolution.

Kim Jong Il started his Songun revolutionary leadership with an inspection of the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People's Army on August 25, Juche 49 (1960).

True to the cause of President Kim Il Sung, who started the Korean revolution by dint of arms, he considered Songun his lifelong political creed and engaged in the Songun revolutionary leadership for over five decades.

Having fully established the leadership system of the Workers' Party of Korea in the army in the 1960s, he directed much effort to implementing the party's military line of making the entire army a cadre army and modernizing it.

In the 1970s, he provided a program for developing the KPA to be an army serving Kim Il Sung and the party and set forth a slogan "Let us fight devotedly for the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung!"

Since then, the KPA has taken the van in faithfully upholding the leadership of the party and the leader.

Whenever he visited KPA units, he encouraged soldiers to intensify training and fully prepare for combat.

Under his Songun leadership, the KPA also took the lead in socialist construction. The working spirit and working style displayed by the army have greatly influenced the whole society.

His Songun politics entered a new stage in the 1990s, fully demonstrating the might of the DPRK.

Kim Jong Il became the KPA supreme commander on December 24, 1991 and was awarded the title of the DPRK Marshal on April 20 next year.