Revolutionaries Born of the Young Communist League

The Young Communist League of Korea (YCLK) was formed on August 28, Juche 16 (1927).

Made up of young workers, peasants and students tempered and tested in various revolutionary organizations, and with the hard-core elements of the Anti-Imperialist Youth League as its backbone, the YCLK was a youth organization that would fight for anti-imperialist national liberation and for communism.

The YCLK steadily expanded its ranks to different parts by embracing fine young people tempered in the anti-Japanese struggle. Its organizations were also formed in the armed units after the founding of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army in April 1932.

The YCLK members undauntedly fought fierce bloody battles during the do-or-die armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists. Among them was a member of the YCL nicknamed “13 bullets” instead of his real name.

Early in the winter of 1933, a ten-man blocking party of a guerrilla unit was stationed at the post in the valley of Ssukpatgol. He was in charge of the YCL group in the blocking party whose duty was to contain and destroy the Japanese “punitive” force intruding into the guerrilla zone and inform the command of the prevailing situation.

One night, a “punitive” force surrounded the valley under cover of darkness and started attacking the post. The blocking party was involved in heavy fighting from dawn. They repelled seven times the enemy’s charge based on numerical superiority until one corner of the log-cabin that was serving as a post had been burned down.

Calling a YCL group meeting in the thick of the battle, the head of the party said, “Comrades, behind us is the guerrilla base and our beloved brothers and sisters. If we fall back a single step from here, we will have no right to live in this world as young Koreans. Let us hold out to the last, even though it costs our lives, even though our bodies are torn to pieces!”

Although he was seriously wounded with 13 shots in his body, he fought bravely against the enemy. Several other members of the blocking party, who were wounded in seven, three and two places in this battle, were also given the nicknames of “seven bullets,” “three bullets” and “two bullets.”

Innumerable anti-Japanese heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives without hesitation to win back their country deprived of by the Japanese imperialists and liberate Korea were trained and educated through life in YCL organizations.

Their ennobling spirit is being carried forward from one decade to the next and from one century to the next. It is eloquently proved by the daring and dignified looks of young Koreans who are continuously working fresh miracles and feats in socialist construction.