The "Song of General Kim Il-sung" (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: 김일성장군의 노래) is a

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 Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

n marching song composed by

Kim Won-gyun Kim Won-gyun (; 2 January 1917 – 5 April 2002) was a North Korean composer and politician. He is considered one of the most prominent, if not the most celebrated, composer of North Korea. He composed "Aegukka" — the national anthem of ...

in 1946. As a part of an ongoing cult of personality, the song praising

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 ...

, North Korea's "

Eternal President The Eternal leaders of North Korea, officially the Eternal leaders of ''Juche'' Korea, refers to the practice of granting posthumous titles to deceased leaders of North Korea. The official title was established by a line in the preamble to the ...

", who died in 1994, is still widely played in the country. It is often considered to be the ''de facto'' national anthem in North Korea. Kim Il Song_Portrait

The song is a four-square march. It features paired two bar

phrases In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

in an A-B-A

form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data ...

, with dotted rhythms. Percussion and brass instrumentation is intended to enhance the revolutionary tone of the song. The song, composed in 1946, is the earliest known work of art mentioning Kim Il-sung, and thus can be said to mark the beginning of his personality cult. In the early 1980s

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

began promoting the song and it has since replaced "

Aegukka "" (Chosŏn'gŭl: ; ), officially translated as "Patriotic Song", is the national anthem of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, more commonly known as North Korea. It was composed in 1945 as a patriotic song celebrating independence fro ...

", the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...

, as the most important song and the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' anthem played in public gatherings in the country. North Koreans typically know the lyrics by heart, though this seems to have changed under his grandson,

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

. The first two bars of the song are used as an

interval signal An interval signal, or tuning signal, is a characteristic sound or musical phrase used in international broadcasting, numbers stations, and by some domestic broadcasters, played before commencement or during breaks in transmission, but most comm ...

on North Korean radio and television. According to North Korean sources, their satellites

Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1 or Gwangmyeongseong-1 ( ko, 광명성 1호, Hanja: , meaning Bright Star 1) was a satellite allegedly launched by North Korea on 31 August 1998. While the North Korean government claimed that the launch was successful, no obj ...

, launched in 1998, and

Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 ( ko, 광명성 2호, meaning Bright Star-2 or Lode Star-2) was a satellite launched by North Korea on April 5, 2009. Prior to the launch, concern was raised by other nations, particularly the United States, South Korea and ...

, supposedly launched in a test on 5 April 2009, are broadcasting this song among other data. Emulating a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

tradition of carving

sutra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...

s, its lyrics are carved in stones as well as the Pyongyang Arch of Triumph. The song is played by the North Korean state television and

Voice of Korea Voice of Korea () is the international broadcasting service of North Korea. It broadcasts primarily information in Chinese, Spanish, German, English, French, Russian, Japanese and Arabic. Until 2002 it was known as Radio Pyongyang. The interval ...

at the start of broadcasts each day.

References

External links

*
"The Song of General Kim Il-sung" (mp3)
at

Naenara Naenara () is the official web portal of the North Korean government. It was the first website in North Korea, and was created in 1996. The portal's categories include politics, tourism, music, foreign trade, arts, press, information technology, ...

Lyrics in Korean and EnglishScore with English lyrics
at Naenara
Orchestral choir performance
{{DPRK supreme leaders hymns 1946 songs Propaganda songs Propaganda in North Korea North Korean songs Songs about Kim Il-sung North Korean military marches

See also

References

External links