Sun of Nation Acclaimed for First Time in Korea's History of 5000 Years

Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- The 100th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung, founder of socialist Korea and peerlessly great man, is coming nearer.

On this occasion (April 15) not only Koreans but also progressives of the world have visited Mangyongdae, his birthplace, with deep reverence for him.

In Mangyongdae there is a modest straw-thatched house where the President was born and spent his childhood, nourished his high ambition to liberate the country from the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule while being taught by his parents Kim Hyong Jik and Kang Pan Sok.

Since he left the house at the age of 14, he had conducted 70 years of revolutionary activities, performing great exploits.

In his teens Kim Il Sung formed the Down-with-Imperialism Union and fathered the immortal Juche Idea that defines the popular masses as masters of history and their own destinies.

In his thirties he accomplished the historic cause of liberating Korea from the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule and, in his forties, defeated the U.S. imperialism, which boasted of being "the strongest" in the world, to protect the sovereignty of the nation.

He successfully led socialist construction to free the Korean people from exploitation and oppression forever and turned the country into a people-centered socialist power independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in defence.

The prospering DPRK is a great legacy the President provided by dedicating all his life.

That is why the Koreans and other people of the world have called the DPRK Kim Il Sung's Korea and are reviewing the century of Kim Il Sung's nation with high pride.

The 1910s when the President was born was a period of distress for the Korean nation.

By launching a war with China and a war with Russia, the Japanese imperialists put Korea under their control. In 1905 they cooked up the Ulsa Five-point Treaty to turn Korea into their colony.

The Korean nation's destiny was at stake under the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule.

All the Koreans were very thirsty for the advent of a great man who would liberate the country. So, the birth of the President on April 15, 1912, was a great fortune for the Korean nation.

His father named him Song Ju, out of the desire to put him forward as a mainstay of the country.

A couple of peasants residing in Chilgol village, where the President's mother's family lived, presented a brass vessel as a gift to him in celebration of his birth.

Inscribed in the vessel are letters "Happy birthday" and a pine tree, bamboo, flower blossoms and butterflies, which are symbolic of strong will, harmony and happiness. This vessel, which is still preserved at the Mangyongdae Revolutionary Museum, was the first gift to him and mirrored the ardent desire of the Korean people to lead a happy life in the prosperous country guided by a great person.

Kim Il Sung was born amid blessings of the people and devoted all his life to them. He will always live in the hearts of the Koreans and all other people of the world along with the Juche idea, the great philosophy of independence founded by him.