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North Korea celebrates army's 93rd anniversary, slams Japan-stationed U.S. B-1B bombers

Published: 25 Apr. 2025, 17:44

This image, published by the Korean Central News Agency on April 26, 2024, shows a performance marking the 92nd founding anniversary of the People's Revolutionary Army. [YONHAP]

North Korea marked the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (KPRA) — the alleged anti-Japanese guerrilla unit that Pyongyang claims as the root of its modern military — by urging absolute loyalty and obedience to the state's leader Kim Jong-un on Friday.

The state-run Rodong Sinmun said that North Korea should further strengthen and develop its armed forces in an editorial published the same day. The article emphasized the need for political education and ideological training, especially targeting younger soldiers.

“The founding of the KPRA was the world historic event heralding the birth of the powerful revolutionary army boundlessly loyal to the idea and leadership of the leader and the army of the people fighting for the dignity and happiness of the country and its people for the first time in history,” the newspaper said, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Various commemorative events were also held to mark the occasion. A screening and discussion of the film “Star of Korea,” which portrays the founding of the KPRA by Kim Il Sung, took place on Thursday at the Youth Central Hall with student attendees, according to the KCNA.

The General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea also organized a visit to the Kuksabong Revolutionary Battle Site in South Pyongan, a location associated with Kim Il Sung’s anti-Japanese armed struggle.

The KPRA is an alleged partisan group that North Korea claims to have been organized by Kim Il Sung during his anti-Japanese activities in Manchuria.

Since 1978, April 25 — the date of the KPRA’s alleged founding in 1932 — has been designated as North Korea’s official military founding day. In 2022, to mark the 90th anniversary, Pyongyang held a massive military parade.

Two U.S. B-1B bombers stage joint drills with South Korean and U.S. fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula on April 15 [YONHAP]

Meanwhile, North Korea condemned the United States for stationing B-1B strategic bombers in Japan, calling it a threat to regional security.

In a commentary published on Friday, KCNA said “the deployment of B-1Bs in Japan shows that the military basis of the U.S. which had resorted to the use of force in the Asia-Pacific region with Guam mainly as its launching base and starting position is changing into a more vicious one.

“This is clearly a very serious development harmful to regional security.”

The article claimed that the deployment’s “military significance is in the fact that it is the long-term presence and permanent settlement of the U.S. strategic assets in the depth of the Asia-Pacific region, far from being the temporary deployment for the U.S.-Japan joint drill or for muscle-flexing against regional countries.”

“The U.S. moves to destroy peace and stability by escalating military threats to the Asia-Pacific region will be subject to due counterattack by the regional people,” said the article.

B-1B bombers were deployed to Misawa Air Base in Aomori, Japan, on April 15, according to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

It is the first time that a U.S. bomber task force — capable of global strikes — has been stationed in Japan, and analysts view it as a move aimed at putting simultaneous pressure on both North Korea and China by reducing flight time compared to deployment from Guam.

The B-1B, one of the U.S. military’s three major strategic bombers, is considered among the assets most feared by Pyongyang. The supersonic aircraft has a maximum speed of Mach 1.25 and a range of up to 12,000 kilometers (7,456 miles), and is capable of carrying up to 57 tons of bombs and missiles.

Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Workers’ Party, issued a statement on April 9, claiming that North Korea’s denuclearization was a “delusional fantasy,” and subsequently criticized joint South Korea-U.S. military drills and the deployment of U.S. strategic assets.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY PARK HYUN-JU [[email protected]]