One day immediately after Korea’s liberation from Japanese military rule, President Kim Il Sung called in songwriters for the creation of the national anthem.
Ours is a truly beautiful country which is bounded by the sea on three sides, where all kinds of cereals and fruits ripen in the fields and which abounds in underground resources, and ours is a resourceful people with a 5 000-year history and brilliant culture, he said with great pride.
And our working people who have been freed from exploitation and oppression are fighting devotedly to build a new prosperous Korea with political power in their hands, and this national pride and self-confidence of the resourceful Korean people with such a beautiful country and tradition of struggle should be incorporated in the song, he noted.
The creators who had been at a loss felt they finally found a way.
The instruction of Kim Il Sung which was pregnant with ardent love for the country and the people fully contained the theme and main content of the song.
Like this, under his meticulous guidance, the national anthem Patriotic Song was born as a masterpiece in which ideological and artistic qualities are welded together.
