May 5 -- Today marks the 76th anniversary of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland (ARF).

The ARF, the anti-Japanese national united front body, was founded on May 5, Juche 25 (1936) as the first of its kind in Korea in accordance with President Kim Il Sung´s profound magnanimity and idea on the great national unity to rally close all the people loving the nation as one, transcending the differences in idea, political opinion and religious belief, and the Korean revolution emerged victorious with the strength of unity.

The ARF was a nationwide united front grouping workers, peasants, youth and students, intellectuals, patriotic landlords, capitalists and men of religion.

Historical Painting: President Kim Il Sung is declaring formation of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland on on May 5, Juche 25 (1936).

The birth of the association gave a new origin to the national unity as it put the demands and interests of the nation, not specified class and section, above anything else.

The Korean people accomplished the cause of the national liberation through the positive nation-wide anti-Japanese national united front movement, and under the banner of the President´s idea on united front after the liberation of the country, too, they built the Workers´ Party of Korea as a popular party and wrought epoch-making miracles in the Fatherland Liberation War against the U.S. imperialists and the complex social revolutions of two stages.

The noble revolutionary exploits the President performed and the traditions he established by leading the struggle of the Korean people for independence and socialism along the road of a sure victory in reliance upon the united strength of broad patriotic forces have been carried forward by leader Kim Jong Il at a new higher level, recording a brilliant chapter in the proud history of the Korean revolution.

The whole Party has been imbued with the Songun idea, the entire army has shared the idea, will and destiny with the Supreme Commander and all the army and people have achieved the perfect identity in ideology and working method on the basis of the spirit of defending the leader with their very lives. This is the true feature of the DPRK´s single-minded unity.

Thanks to the single-hearted unity under which the leader trusts in his army and people and the latters absolutely believe in and follow the former and share the will and destiny with him, the Korean people could wind up the "Arduous March" and the forced march victoriously and achieve eye-opening successes which serve as a solid springboard for the construction of a great prosperous and powerful nation.

Leader Kim Jong Il has formulated the three principles of national reunification, the proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo and the ten-point programme of the great unity of the whole nation as the three charters for national reunification and is successfully carrying forward the brilliant tradition of great national unity provided by the President, with the result that a new phase for the reunification of the country has been opened up and successes unprecedented in the north-south relations made in recent years.

The Koreans in the north and the south and abroad have turned out in a nationwide movement to materialize the idea of "By our nation itself," thereby bringing about a new phase of the movement for national reunification as Kim Jong Il took a bold patriotic decision and provided the historic June 15 joint declaration based on the Juche-based view on the nation and wisely led the Koreans to pool their efforts on the principle of national independence to reunify the country.

The Korean people will carry forward the tradition of unity provided by the President down through generations and build a prosperous and powerful nation on this land without fail as the President wished.

All the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad should preserve the tradition and draw on the experience whereby it achieved liberation with the might of the united national front to foil the outsiders´ moves for aggression and achieve national reunification by the concerted efforts of the nation.

For national reunification it is necessary to achieve great national unity among other things.

All the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad will conduct a dynamic patriotic movement for national reunification, peace against war and the great national unity under the banner of "By our nation itself" and bring about a turning phase in the movement to accomplish the cause of national reunification without fail, bearing deep in mind the precious historical truth of our revolution that independence and unity serve as a treasured sword for winning a victory in the struggle to carve out the destiny of the nation.

- Adapted from past articles of KCNA.

Source: Tongil Korea Net - May 5, 2009

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