Writer(s) Ri Chan | Composer(s) Kim Won-gyun | |
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"The Song of General Kim Il-sung" is a North Korean marching song composed by Kim Won-gyun in 1946. As a part of an ongoing cult of personality, the song praising Kim Il-sung, North Korea's "Eternal President", who died in 1994, is still widely played in that country.
The song is a four-square march. It features paired two bar phrases in an A-B-A form, 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 began promoting the song and it has since replaced "Aegukka", the national anthem, as the most important song played in public gatherings in the country. North Koreans typically know the lyrics by heart.
The first two bars of the song are used as an interval signal on North Korean radio and television. According to North Korean sources, their satellites Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, launched in 1998, and Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2, supposedly launched in a test on 5 April 2009, are broadcasting this song among other data.
Emulating a Buddhist tradition of carving sutras, its lyrics are carved in stones as well as the Pyongyang Arch of Triumph.
The song is played by the North Korean state television at the start of broadcasts each day.