It has been 97 years since the March 1 Popular Uprising which recorded brilliant chapter in the history of national liberation movement of Korea.
The popular uprising was nation-wide anti-Japanese patriotic resistance to regain the country usurped by the Japanese.
The Japanese imperialists illegally occupied Korea early in the 20th century and enforced mediaeval, colonial and fascist rule and deprived the Korean nation of all rights and imposed upon the Korean people the destiny of statelessness.
Bitter anger and the spirit of independence of the Korean nation erupted on March 1, 1919 as a nationwide anti-Japanese resistance.
The protestors indomitably fought against the brutal suppression by the Japanese imperialist army and police who wielded rifles and bayonets, chanting slogans “Long live Korea’s independence!” and “Japanese and the army get out of here!”.
Through the March 1 Popular Uprising, the Korean nation demonstrated before the whole world that it was the nation strong in independence with indomitable stamina and ardent patriotic spirit of braving any sacrifice to win back the sovereignty of the country, shaking the colonial rule of Japan to its very foundation.
Much water has flown under the bridge since the uprising but the Korean nation has not yet established the sovereignty on a nationwide scale. The US, which occupied south Korea in place of Japan, has trampled down the Korean nation’s demand for reunification for over seven decades, stepped up its colonial rule over south Korea and egged south Korea on to escalate inter-Korean confrontation.
The US has sunk its mind to slap tougher sanctions against the DPRK and sling mud at the “human rights” of the DPRK, while inciting the south Korean authorities to deteriorate inter-Korean ties and ignite the fuse of war.
Japan, which had inflicted immeasurable pains upon the Korean nation, has bolstered up its military nexus with Washington and Seoul for overseas reinvasion and exhausted every possibility to apply sanctions against the DPRK.
Despite strong protests within and without, the south Korean authorities, bereft of reason, struck deal on issue of “comfort women” with Japan and are hell-bent on war games and confrontation against north Korea in tandem with the US, clamoring about “collapse of north Korea”.
The Korean nation, keeping patriotism and the spirit of uprisers in their minds, will terminate the history of national division peppered with distrust and confrontation by neutralizing the US war provocation and “human rights”issue against the DPRK and the south Korean authorities’policy of foreign dependence and confrontation against the fellow countrymen with the concerted efforts of the nation.
