KCNA on the Samil Movement's 91st anniversary

It's not exactly a hobby, but every now and then I like reading what the KCNA propagandists say about Korean stuff. For example, did you know that the Samil Movement, also known as the March First Movement, started in Pyongyang? Now you do:

Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Ninety-one years has elapsed since the March First Popular Uprising took place in Korea.

It was a nationwide patriotic struggle to achieve the liberation of the country from the Japanese imperialists' rule and win the sovereignty of the nation.

After illegally occupying Korea early in the 20th century the Japanese imperialists had infringed upon the Korean nation's dignity and sovereignty with a mediaeval military rule, turning the whole land of Korea into a large prison without bars.

The Korean people's grudge and resentment against their heinous colonial rule finally burst into a nationwide uprising on March 1, Juche 8 (1919).

It started in Pyongyang. Patriotic students of Pyongyang Sungsil Middle School, turned into a strong base of the anti-Japanese independence movement by indomitable revolutionary Kim Hyong Jik, and thousands of people gathered in the playground of Sungdok Girls' School at noon and listened to "Declaration of Independence" before taking to the streets to stage a fierce demonstration, chanting "Long live the independence of Korea!" and "Japanese and their army, out of Korea!"

The number of demonstrators multiplied soon into more than 100,000 in spite of the Japanese imperialists' brutal crackdown.

The demonstration spread over not only the whole country but also Manchuria, Shanghai, Maritime Province, Hawaii, etc.

Korean people who had suffered a miserable lot of an enslaved nation took part in the uprising in all parts of the country irrespective of occupation and religious faith, age and sex.

Within three months since the start of the uprising, more than two million people of all social strata joined the uprising and demonstrations and riots totaled over 3,200 times till the end of the year.

The March First Popular Uprising was a historical event which demonstrated the Korean people's independent and patriotic spirit of not tolerating outsiders' rule.

Hmm... not much mention of Pagoda Park in Seoul, the largely Christian group that declared independence based on the American declaration and Wilson's principles of self-determination, or even that so many people were able to gather in Seoul under the cover of attending the late Emperor Kojong's funeral. Good on them, though, for mentioning Hawaii (which is an inadvertent nod, sort of, to Syngman Rhee) and people of different religious faiths.