N. Korea uses key military anniv. to urge allegiance to leader Kim

SEOUL, April 25 (Yonhap) — North Korea called on its military to show “absolute” allegiance and obedience to leader Kim Jong-un as it marked the anniversary of the founding of anti-Japan forces that later evolved into its state armed forces.

“Our revolutionary armed forces should be further developed and strengthened into a powerful revolutionary military for (leader) Kim Jong-un,” the Rodong Sinmun, a mainstream daily published by the country’s Workers’ Party of Korea, wrote in an editorial on the 93rd founding anniversary of the People’s Revolutionary Army.

Kim Il-sung led the forces in the fight against Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule before founding North Korea.

North Korea celebrates April 25 as the founding date of its anti-Japanese forces, which it regards as the origin of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), although it officially changed the military’s founding day in 2018 to Feb. 8, the date the KPA was formally established.

“The sole guidance system (of Kim) should be more thoroughly solidified to firmly establish military discipline of absolute allegiance and obedience to the ideology and leadership of the party’s center across all forces,” the newspaper said.

The daily also claimed the armed forces built up under the country’s founder and late former leader Kim Jong-il are enjoying their peak under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, touting him as “the foundation” of the country’s military development.

According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency, the anniversary was celebrated with various events, including the screening of a film in Pyongyang about Kim Il-sung’s formation of the anti-Japan forces, which was viewed by students on Thursday.