The first study tour of the Mt Paektu area was made in June 1956.
The area, which was the starting point of the Korean revolution and served as a stronghold of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, is associated with the revolutionary spirit of Paektu created by the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters who achieved the historic cause of national liberation under the command of General Kim Il Sung.
Recalling the revolutionary spirit displayed by the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, President Kim Il Sung wrote in his reminiscences With the Century: “The conviction of sure victory, an unbreakable fighting spirit, the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude, devotion and self-sacrificing spirit—these qualities are now called in our country the ‘revolutionary spirit of Paektu’. We emerged victorious in every battle with the enemy at all times and in all places, because we were full of confidence in victory, and maintained an indefatigable fighting and self-sacrificing spirit without losing our composure and hope, even in confrontation with an enemy force, which was dozens of times stronger in number.”
The internal and external situations were very complicated in the mid-1950s.
The imperialists worked viciously to keep the DPRK from advancing under the banner of independence and aggravated the situation extremely, while modern revisionists denigrated revolutionary seniors and unhesitatingly committed rash acts of sullying the purity of the socialist cause.
Such situation seriously affected the DPRK.
Insisting on exploring spots of natural beauty and historic interest, not Mt Paektu, and saying that it was unnecessary to know about the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, a minority of the anti-Party, counter-revolutionary factionalists tried desperately to check the tour of Mt Paektu.
Though he was a teenager at that time, Comrade Kim Jong Il, who had positively assisted the President with his revolutionary activities by dint of his outstanding intelligence and insight since childhood, saw the matter of carrying on the revolutionary spirit of Paektu as a crucial issue related to the future and destiny of the Korean revolution and made a resolve to defend, maintain and develop the revolutionary traditions of Paektu.
In late May 1956, he told President Kim Il Sung about his intention to form a study tour group with schoolchildren to explore the revolutionary battle sites in Ryanggang Province on the occasion of the day (June 4) of the victorious battle of Pochonbo.
The President recalled with deep emotion in his reminiscences that it was a significant event that Comrade Kim Jong Il decided to form an expedition to the revolutionary battle sites in the Mt Paektu area with his fellow students from Pyongyang Middle School No. 1.
Comrade Kim Jong Il formed the study tour group of the revolutionary battle sites in the Mt Paektu area with students of the school and made the first study tour to the mountain from June 5 to 14 1956.
The aim of the tour was to learn how the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters brought the historic victory of the cause of national liberation by overcoming all hardships and trials while going on an expedition along the route taken by General Kim Il Sung.
Until then, the route to Mt Paektu was pathless and unexplored.
Through the whole course of the study tour, Comrade Kim Jong Il led the students to deeply grasp the outstanding strategy and tactics and wise leadership of the President and learn from the fighting spirit and high sense of organization and discipline of the anti-Japanese guerrillas. He also told the students who took part in the study tour and officials in Ryanggang Province where the Mt Paektu area is situated that the statue of the President should be erected with respect, revolutionary battle sites and relics found out, revolutionary battle sites spruced up and the study tour route linked up to Mt Paektu.
Thus, the study tour of the revolutionary battle sites in the Mt Paektu area was initiated.
The study tour organized and made by Chairman Kim Jong Il was a historic event that marked a turning point in the work for defending, carrying forward and developing the revolutionary traditions of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the first study tour of the Mt Paektu area made by the Chairman.
