Pyongyang, October 24 (KCNA) -- The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un made a speech at the groundbreaking ceremony for building the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations.

The full text of the speech is as follows:

Comrades,

Today we are holding the groundbreaking ceremony of the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats that will hand down forever the shining life of the heroes and fallen soldiers of the overseas operations units, excellent sons of the Korean people and defenders of justice.

Present here are families of the martyrs and the soldiers who fought in the operations for liberating Kursk.

It is quite fortunate, pleasing and gratifying for me to see the soldiers, who were returned after being wounded and have recovered their health.

Also present at this groundbreaking ceremony are commanding officers of large and other combined units at all levels of our army and soldier-builders who will undertake this responsible and honourable construction project.

And dear Russian friends are present here to share this meaningful moment with us.

Comrades,

This is a moment which not only the bereaved families that sent their beloved sons, husbands and brothers but also the whole country awaited as one to see with the sincerest affection and greatest respect.

To be launched now is a grand undertaking for making immortal the ennobling spirit of the martyrs, who returned to the embrace of their motherland with victory they won at the cost of their lives true to the sacred mission, as a sentiment of our army, our people and our state and as a vital power for the relationship between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation.

The Eighth Enlarged Meeting of the Eighth Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, held on May 28, decided to build a wonderful memorial museum as crystallization of our Party's and people's eternal thanks to and respect for the representatives of the great fame of our country, as well as a great symbol of the DPRK-Russia relationship that was forged at the cost of blood and is being consolidated day after day. After that, all preparations have been pushed ahead in a responsible way, and today we are now holding this significant groundbreaking ceremony.

First, I would like to avail myself of this meaningful opportunity to extend the most ennobling respect and warmest militant salute to the combatants in the operations for liberating Kursk, who fought in the most valuable and sacred battles for justice and dignity and performed imperishable feats for the times, history and posterity with their lofty sacrifices and heroic feats.

And I convey my encouragement to the fraternal Russian people and army, and offer warm greetings to the dear Russian friends present here.

Comrades,

There have been erected a number of monuments to the war exploits and other feats our armed forces have performed along with the long and glorious history of our Republic, and we have held one exciting ceremony after another recently to announce the commencement of ambitious revolutionary projects. Still, I feel really excited at this moment of the groundbreaking ceremony for the building of this museum.

This is not simply because the museum is to be dedicated to the feats of the officers and soldiers of the overseas detachments of the Korean People's Army, the first of its kind in the history of our nation building; nor is it because they have performed unrivalled feats and achieved heroic war results unprecedented in history.

Here at this place there will soon appear a monument with group sculptures of those heroes who, shouldering the most ennobling missions for their country and mankind, safeguarded justice by fighting bloody battles day after day and month after month, a monument to a great alliance with truthful and heartwarming pictures with no falsity.

Just one year ago from today the last group of the combatants of our expeditionary forces left for Russia.

They, strongly feeling the weight of their heavy mission, made a forceful march towards the battlefield in the alien land.

They left expecting no reward or send-off.

A full one year has passed since the Central Military Commission of the Party dispatched our combatants to the Kursk Region of the Russian Federation, and what we have experienced up to now is far more miraculous and meaningful than what we expected.

The sacred journey marked the beginning of a new history of militant solidarity between the DPRK and Russia. Their relations have been further elevated as those based on the highest trust with which they fight in the same trench for the same purpose, the most genuine and solid relations based on which they share the same destiny.

In the battlefields of fierce conflict between justice and injustice in the world, the relations between the two countries have passed the strictest test for their solidity.

Our heroes destroyed the fiendish neo-Nazi invaders with their staunch spirit not to tolerate any aggression but to annihilate the aggressors, thus striking the international camp of reactionaries with great uneasiness and terror, safeguarding the prestige and security of their fraternal people and making a tangible contribution to the common cause of humankind for justice and peace.

Even the transfusion of a huge volume of blood by the United States and its Western bloc turned out futile in making the righteous blood in the vessels of the two peoples cool, and even the appalling atrocities by fascism could not dampen the phoenix-like fighting spirit and valour.

The proud sons of our state and Russia demonstrated the impregnability of the DPRK-Russia alliance by winning the decisive victory, and etched in history the truth that the hegemony-seeking forces' wild ambition will inevitably be doomed to failure as long as justice is on our side.

Following the road paved by blood, we have reached a high plane of the relations between the two countries that spans two centuries, thus reconfirming the depth of the roots of the unshakable solidarity, and we are convinced of a greater and brighter future.

The alliance between the peoples of the two countries sharing ennobling ideals and desires is their correct option, and the solidarity and friendship forged at the cost of their precious blood and lives are really sacred and enduring.

Our people regard as a source of great dignity the victory they have achieved together with the Russian people in the sacred struggle to defend independence and justice, and place the heroes of the sacred war on the highest place of glory.

This museum will shine forever as a symbol of the most righteous people and the strongest army, and it will be built wonderfully as the incarnation of strong will and might to safeguard the aspirations of the times, which must never be turned back, and to put history to rights.

Comrades,

This place is the sanctuary provided by our country and people embracing the great sons who defended the most sacred thing at the cost of the most precious things in their life and praying for their immortality.

A cemetery, a memorial hall and a monument will be erected here as an integral whole, which will incorporate the traces of life left by the excellent sons of our state and people in the flames of fierce battles and their legendary combat feats and preserve their hearts' enduring beating and their ennobling spirit.

Their shining names, images and heroic life should never die out in our memory, and their ennobling spirit shall never fade out of our memory with the passage of time.

Still, I frequently imagine the eyes of our strong soldiers who must have known no fear of death even at the last moment of their lives, the eyes which must have twinkled only with pride and glory, with no regrets at all.

Even if they lived longer, they would live a sacred and ennobling life just as they did at the last moments of their lives.

The last moments of their brilliant lives were the acme of life, which the traces of their true service for the country would surely reach.

By building this museum, we can ensure that the heroic feats of the combatants, which I believe our service personnel and all the other people have reflected on with deep respect, go down in history as moments of immortality, and that they will be revered by all the later generations of the Republic.

Displayed here will be the photos and fine art works that will give a truthful portrayal of how our combatants waged bloody battles with ardent patriotism, as well as the remains of the hard-fought battles.

The exhibits will also include those featuring the words they said when facing death–the whistles of their soul and the echoes of their life–as well as the last requests they made in reflection of their lifelong desires.

Of course, these will tell of only a few of the countless heroic tales about how they created a new history of victory in the flames of fierce battles.

However, the exhibits will delineate the heroic images that have not been recorded in the past history of warfare, and they will illustrate the self-sacrificing spirit and whole-hearted affection between comrades-in-arms that are beyond imagination or probability. I think they will help us understand how strong human beings can grow, how lofty and beautiful their spirit and personality can get, and how glorious and ennobling their last moments can become.

This museum is a sacred sanctuary dedicated to the immortality of true patriots.

In the future all the visitors to this sanctuary will appreciate the precious lives of the heroic combatants, implanting in their minds the iron truth of struggle and victory to be told by the hearts that overflowed with ardent love for their motherland.

Comrades,

This museum, in which the soul of the combatants will rest, is located in the Hwasong area, a symbol of Pyongyang that boasts its youthful vigour and modern features transforming itself year after year.

Our Party's intention in building the museum here is to make sure that the combatants receive blessing for all ages while seeing the prosperity of their motherland, the thriving Pyongyang in particular; this is what every one of them yearned for so much, shedding their blood even at the moment when they unhesitatingly laid down their lives.

After the completion of Sappyol Street, which is now under construction in the vicinity of this museum, the martyrs will always be near their beloved parents, wives, children and siblings, sharing thoughts and kindred feelings with them.

Officers and soldiers of the construction units at all levels and officials and creative workers from several organs that are engaged in the construction project,

I hope that all of you, as befitting participants in this honourable project, give full play to your highest architectural skills and create ennobling artistic portrayal down to the last detail, so as to adequately represent the deep sincerity and respect for the heroes and moral obligation to them shown by our Party and government, their comrades-in-arms and other service personnel, and all the other people.

Comrades,

With this project, two museums representing victories in the wars, the past one and the present one, will be sited in the capital city of our state.

This proves in practice that the spirit of defending the country and indomitable heroism of the victorious wartime generation, whom we have put forward on the platform of dignity and always pay reverence to, were not confined to any special period, but have been carried forward stoutly for more than 70 years, and developed onto a higher level to be respected by the great years and the heroic generation.

What I want to boast most proudly at this place today is that the heroes of the self-sacrificing spirit unprecedented in history, who can never be found in any other countries in the world, are none other than our young, new generations.

Today's gigantic spiritual growth of the unyielding descendants that have carried forward the bloodline of their strong predecessors makes it possible to estimate more clearly its future.

I feel really moved by the infinite pride in foreseeing the appearance of the coming generation and the distant future of our motherland.

The country, which can build such museums telling of great victory and inheritance generation after generation, is an invincible one with confidence in its glorious future.

The testimony by history to our state's powerfulness never to be changed forever–this is the indelible meaning of this museum.

Comrades,

The DPRK-Russia friendship, which has increased its eternal vitality and the invincibility and power of which have been verified amid the grave tempest of history, is now rising to its historic peak.

This friendship, through which one defends the other by means of will and obligation and both are faithful to their obligations by dint of heroic struggle and death-defying devotion, is a precious wealth shared by the two countries, and it will enable them to enjoy the reputation of being powerful countries.

The confrontation between justice and injustice will get more serious, and challenges by the domination and tyranny will persist, but all this cannot hinder the development of the DPRK-Russia relationship, which has grown closer in the flames of bloody battles.

The years of militant fraternity, in which a guarantee has been provided for the long-term development of the bilateral friendship at the cost of precious blood, will advance non-stop with the ennobling soul of the great heroes, and more honourable pages of strength and victory will be added to the great chronicles of bilateral ties between the two countries, both just and powerful.

Pyongyang will always be with Moscow.

Our friendship and unity will last forever.

Long live our heroic army!

Long live the invincible DPRK-Russia friendship! -0-