The Soldier's Medal of Honour ( ko, 전사의 영예 훈장) was instituted on July 1, 1950. The order is a military award of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

given to soldiers and

guerrillas Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tacti ...

for combat bravery or leadership of troops in battle. Designed along the lines of and awarded with the criteria as the same level as the Soviet

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War (russian: Орден Отечественной войны, Orden Otechestvennoy voiny) is a Soviet military decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to partisa ...

. North Korea granted a 50% pension to any soldier permanently disabled in an action that result in the soldier being awarded the order. According to North Korean propaganda, the order was initiated by

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

: "On June 28, Juche 39 (1950), Kim Il Sung told an official that he was going to award the Seoul unit title to those that participated in the Seoul liberation operation, adding citations also should be conferred on meritorious soldiers." According to these claims, later that day, he asked an artist to create the design of the order. The following day, Kim "suggesting inscribing letters 'For the fatherland' and a soldier with rifle in hands in the order and decorating its frame with red-color star." He approved the revised design the following day and "personally named it Order of Soldier's Honor." During the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, 7,972 Koreans and 530 Chinese received the award in its first class and 112,170 Koreans and 6,349 Chinese in its second class.

References

*Orders, Decorations and Medals of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Col. William A. Book USAR (Ret)

See also

References

Further reading