opinion

January 22 1925 was a significant day when Comrade Kim Il Sung set out on the 1 000-ri Journey for National Liberation with a lofty intention to liberate Korea.

Marking the day, a group of schoolchildren from across the country embarked on a study tour for the first time in January 1975.

Fifty years have passed since then.

The schoolchildren, who had joined the first study tour, have become fathers and mothers now and the red flag of the study tour group they had flown was handed over to younger generations.

Over the past half a century many schoolchildren have taken part in the study tour of the 1 000-ri Journey for National Liberation to walk the historical route.

It is said that time erases many things, but the route he had followed a century ago has not changed and the historical relics of the day have still been preserved.

As his traces are indelible, the patriotic soul he cherished in his teens is still alive vividly.

Today the soul is dyeing redder the red neckerchiefs at the chests of schoolchildren.

The over-400-kilometre trek from time-honoured Mangyongdae in Pyongyang to Phophyong is not easy, but the schoolchildren are full of pride and self-confidence that they have become members of the honourable ranks.

The members of the study tour groups strengthen their will, singing the revolutionary songs associated with the soul of the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners and helping and leading one another forward.

During their study tour, they conduct colourful political and cultural activities including gatherings for studying the reminiscences of the anti-Japanese guerrillas and lively art performances and visit historic revolutionary museums built along the course of study tour.

Looking round historic places associated with the immortal footprints, the study tourists deeply keep in mind the glorious revolutionary history of the President who made the 1 000-ri journey in his teens.

Receiving a warm send-off from the people wherever they go and seeing the cities and villages telling a new history of great changes, factories buzzing with activities for increased production and beautiful socialist rural villages, they experience the stirring reality of the country, consolidate the knowledge they learned at school and cherish ardent patriotism of valuing and loving even a tree and a blade of grass in the country.

Just as the schoolchildren who have joined the study tour over the past 50 years were, those who join the study tour groups today are also confident that the study tour will go on forever generation after generation.