A large number of wartime songs were produced in the DPRK during the Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953).

Among the wartime songs is “My Dear Is a Hero Now” written by a platoon leader of the Korean People’s Army, not a writer, in 1951.

The song, which turned his life experience into the lyrics, tells an uncommon story.

One day, platoon leader Pak Sam Gyu was wounded in a battle and committed to the hospital of an army corps. The ambulance carrying wounded soldiers arrived at a farming village in Kumgang County about midday the day after. It was so hot that they wanted to cool themselves by drinking cold water. So they went to a house at the entrance of the village.

It was the house of an old corporal who had been killed in action a few days ago in the same unit as Pak. As he recognized his comrade-in-arms in the framed picture hanging on the wall, the platoon leader felt a pain in his heart. He could not tell his mother and wife, who were taking the lead in the wartime food production and assistance to the KPA soldiers on the front, while waiting for news of him, that the corporal fell in the battle.

So, Pak left the house, encouragingly saying to them that he would return home wearing numerous decorations all over his breast after winning the war.

Back on the ambulance, his mind flashed back to the wife of his comrade-in-arms who expressed her determination to fight and work harder in order to proudly meet her decorated husband on the day of victory and other family members. He also remembered the images of women in the rear who took an active part in assistance to the front, ploughing and sowing the seeds in the fields in place of their husbands fighting on the front.

The platoon leader was so excited that he brought out a notebook and pen from his pocket and began to write his feelings.

The long-awaited news of my husband dear

Was broken by a soldier who came to see me.

You knocked off a hundred Yankees, he said,

And defended the burning height to become a hero.

Our hero, the pride of the nation,

How could I meet without doing anything worthwhile?

After finishing the first verse, Pak continued to write down the story of the wife of his comrade-in-arms in the second and third verses, who pledged to work well like her husband, who performed brilliant feats in the war, until the day of victory, saying she had finished sowing seeds before others and she had a rich foxtail millet harvest in the fields where seeds were sown after filling shell holes.

As a result, a song was written in the form of a joyful reply letter sent to the front by the women after receiving the news of soldiers who became heroes, not the sad news of their death.

Soon after, composer Jong Jin Ok wrote music for the song.

The song was widely sung on the front and in the rear as soon as it was produced.

The KPA soldiers on the front sang the song, picturing the world of undying love and trust of their parents, wives and children in their native places. Singing the song, the women in the rear turned out more vigorously for wartime food production and assistance to the front.

The song, whose melodies reflect the minds of husbands on the front and women in the rear and which optimistically represents the simple yet beautiful spiritual world of the women, is still sung widely as one of the favourite songs of the DPRK people instilling confidence in victory and optimism in them.