Telegram from Mao Zedong and Others Greeting the 18th Anniversary of Korea’s Liberation

(August 14, 1963)

Pyongyang

Comrade Kim Il Sung, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Premier of the Cabinet of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

Comrade Choe Yong-gon, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea:

On the occasion of the 18th anniversary of Korea’s liberation, we, on behalf of the Chinese people, the Communist Party of China, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, extend our warmest congratulations to the fraternal Korean people, the Workers’ Party of Korea, and the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Through a long and heroic struggle, the Korean people overthrew the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism eighteen years ago, opening a new era in Korean history. The path the Korean people have traveled is one filled with hardships and struggles. The eighteen-year history of the Korean people is a glorious history of smashing imperialist armed invasions and provocations and victoriously carrying out the socialist revolution and socialist construction.

Under the correct leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea headed by Comrade Kim Il Sung, the Korean people, with an indomitable revolutionary spirit, have overcome numerous difficulties and rapidly built their country into a socialist industrial and agricultural state with an independent economic foundation. Today, the Korean people continue to hold high the banner of the general line of socialist construction of the Workers’ Party of Korea—the Chollima Movement—and unswervingly implement the policy of self-reliance. With full confidence, they are advancing courageously to scale new heights in socialist construction. The Chinese people wholeheartedly wish the fraternal Korean people even more brilliant achievements on their path forward.

The Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has consistently pursued a foreign policy of peace, resolutely opposed the aggressive and war policies of U.S. imperialism, actively supported the revolutionary struggles of all oppressed peoples and oppressed nations, and made significant contributions to safeguarding peace in Asia and the world and promoting the cause of human progress. The Korean people are waging an unremitting struggle against the occupation of South Korea by U.S. troops and for the peaceful reunification of their motherland. The Chinese Government and the Chinese people firmly support this just struggle of the Korean people and are convinced that the final victory will surely belong to the Korean people.

The friendly visit to China by Comrade Choe Yong-gon in June this year marked the further consolidation and development of the militant friendship between the peoples of China and Korea. The historic joint statement issued by the leaders of China and Korea has inspired our two peoples in their struggle to build socialism, oppose imperialism, and oppose modern revisionism, and has inspired the revolutionary struggles of the people of the whole world. The Chinese people are determined to unite even more closely with the Korean people, hold high the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, and strive together to safeguard and strengthen the unity of the socialist camp and the international communist movement, oppose imperialism, defend world peace, and win greater victories for national liberation, people’s democracy, and the cause of socialism.

May the militant friendship and great unity between the peoples of China and Korea endure forever.

Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Liu Shaoqi, Chairman of the People’s Republic of China

Zhu De, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China

Zhou Enlai, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China

August 14, 1963

Printed based on the text published in *Renmin Ribao* on August 15, 1963.