A ceremony of the commemorative march of the columns symbolic of the units in the Fatherland Liberation War took place in Pyongyang on the evening of July 27 in celebration of the 72nd anniversary of the victory in the war.

The plaza of the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium was crowded with citizens of the capital city who came to see the ceremony of the commemorative march.

Leading officials of the Party, government and armed forces organs took the platform together with war veterans.

The chief secretaries of the provincial committees of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the commanders of the large combined units of the Korean People’s Army took the platform.

Present there on invitation were diplomatic envoys and members of foreign missions in the DPRK.

Seen in the rostrum were the participants in the celebrations of the 72nd anniversary of the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, officials of the Party Central Committee, soldiers of the artillery sub-unit under the 4th Corps of the KPA who were invited to the celebrations of the V-Day as special guests and other service personnel, officials of ministries and national agencies and officials, meritorious persons, students of revolutionary schools, youth and students in Pyongyang.

The combined military band showed a ceremony with light melodies and peculiar skills, adding to the joy of the people celebrating July 27 of the victory and glory of Juche Korea from one generation into the next.

When the bugle call was sounded signalling the start of the march, the march started led by the column symbolic of the Bodyguard Company holding the portrait of President Kim Il Sung , the ever-victorious and iron-willed brilliant commander.

The portraits of the hot-blooded loyalists including Hyon Chol Hae, Yon Hyong Muk, Pak Song Bong and Sim Chang Wan who, as the first generation bodyguards of the powerful revolutionary army, firmly defended the Supreme Headquarters, the destiny of Korea, were shining in the ranks of the marchers like a cluster of stars of loyalty defending the sun.

The columns, symbolic of legendary guards divisions that performed distinguished feats in the fierce three-year Fatherland Liberation War, entered the plaza in fine array, flying the colours of the Guards, which had fluttered at the parade held in celebration of the victory in the war.

Columns symbolic of the commanding officers and soldiers, who had been ordinary workers, peasants, youth and students before the war, passed evoking the valuable memories of the 1 129 days of the victorious Fatherland Liberation War when they performed legendary feats and created heroic tales, defended the new world of people they greeted for the first time in their history spanning 5 000 years, the national flag of the independent and sovereign state raised by them and the cradle of their happy life.

The representatives of the honour of the victorious wartime generation, including those who fought heroically blocking the enemy’s pillboxes with their chests, pressing the triggers of heavy machine-guns with their chins when their limbs were broken, and rushing at the enemy position with hand grenades in their mouths, and other heroes who were an artilleryman, sniper and member of aircraft-hunting team who dedicated their lives to their only country, passed together with the columns symbolic of guards divisions.

Marching past the plaza were the column symbolic of the Ministry of the Interior holding the portraits of the scouts who had fought valiantly till their last moments of their life for victory in the war on the front and in the battlefield without gunfire and the security workers who had done their part to hasten the day of war victory while sacrificing their all in the invisible outpost line for defending the leader, social system and people and the column symbolic of railway workers who performed matchless feats to ensure wartime transport in the face of a hail of bullets.

The columns of the three services of the KPA entered the plaza following the symbolic columns.

The column of the ground force marched majestically upholding the colours of the Ministry of National Defence and large combined units that will inflict upon the enemies the most disastrous defeat that would be incomparable to that in the war in the 1950s with formidable strike power and overwhelming military muscle that no one can check, by charging the strongest absolute weaponry in the world with the revolutionary idea of the great Party Central Committee.

Marched past in high spirits were the column of the navy making immortal tracks in the course of defending the country while displaying the modern development of the Juche-oriented naval force which is making rapid progress with the might and spirit of Juche Korea spreading far into the ocean, and the column of the air force demonstrating the high pride of being lifeguards of the Party Central Committee, the first death-defying corps of defending revolution and the brave flying corps in the sky.

A KPA Air Force squadron flew past over the plaza in a fan-shaped formation, gorgeously decorating the end of the event.

At the end of the ceremony, fireworks were set off beautifully adorning the nocturnal sky of the V-Day.

KCNA