Literary Persons and Artistes Who Left Clear Traces in History of Juche-oriented Art and Literature

Ri Myon Sang, Talented Composer

Among the literary persons and artistes who brought their creative talent and dreams into full bloom under the benevolent care of peerlessly great persons is Ri Myon Sang, a gifted composer who wrote lots of popular musical pieces.

On May ２４, １９４６, Ri Myon Sang met with President Kim Il Sung, whom he had so much revered, received precious instructions that workers in culture should become combatants on the cultural front.

Thanks to the great trust and benevolent guidance of the President, Ri Myon Sang took the first step as a revolutionary composer.

He composed many famous songs like "The Glorious Country" and "Let’s Go to Mountains and Sea" to sing proudly of our people’s joy and delight and beauty of the motherland.

The wartime song "Song of National Defence" was also composed by him.

The song, which infused our people with retaliatory spirit and reverberated as song for voluntarily joining the front and march for annihilating the enemies, was created in March １９５０.

One day, he, with poet Jo Ryong Chul, heard on the street loudspeaker that enemies invaded our country and committed every manner of atrocities.

They, full of wrath, went to the office and created this song.

The song, as soon as it was created, spread among the people and service personnel rapidly and displayed its vitality further during the days of the Fatherland Liberation War.

Ri Myon Sang created lots of wartime songs like "Mungyong Pass", "The Dear Home in My Native Village" and "Five Hundred Miles of the Amnok River" during the war days to arouse all the service personnel and people to the sacred struggle for winning victory in the war.

After the war, he composed songs conducive to defending our Party’s glorious revolutionary traditions and equipping Party members and working people with the Party’s ideas like "The Snow Is Falling" and "O Mother Party".

He took part in the creation of the "Sea of Blood"-type revolutionary operas led by Chairman Kim Jong Il and devoted all his talent and passion.

In these days, he became one of the first winners of Kim Il Sung Prize and made great contributions to developing the Juche-oriented musical art as a talented composer loved by the people.

He, who lived a life of a talented composer under the warm care of the Party, still lives with the famous songs he created.

Rodong Sinmun