The Mausoleum of King Tongmyong stands magnificently in Ryongsan-ri of Ryokpho District in Pyongyang, telling about the history of Koguryo which was the strongest in Korean history.

   The royal tomb is also associated with the immortal exploits of President Kim Il Sung, who, with gifted wisdom and Juche-based insight, traced back the 5 000-year history of the Korean nation which had been distorted and complicated by the national chauvinists and great-power worshippers.

   Originally, the tomb of King Tongmyong was situated near the walled city of Jolbon what is now Huanren of China’s Liaoning Province. At that time Jolbon was the capital of Koguryo. In 427, when Koguryo transferred its capital to Pyongyang, this tomb was moved to today’s Ryokpho District in Pyongyang.

   After the Kingdom was ruined in 668 foreign aggressors who occupied the territory robbed tombs of royalty and nobles of Koguryo and plundered and destroyed the precious cultural assets.

   Afterwards, through the periods of Koryo and the feudal Joson dynasty, King Tongmyong’s tomb was scarecely conserved, but the Japanese imperialists and reactionary government-patronized historians denied the irrefutable historical facts in an attemp to abolish the Koreans’ traditional worship. The Japanese imperialists had spread the rumour that King Tongmyong was not a real figure but an “imaginary being” in legend and that his tomb was not a real but a “fake”. In the meantime, they robbed the tomb on two occasions in Juche 30(1941).

   But they were confronted with strong resistance from the Korean people. In an attempt to calm down the protest they cried out more loudly that the tomb was an ordinary grave.

   The historical fact distorted in this way was not put to rights even after Korea’s liberation from Japanese military rule due to the maneuvers of anti-Party, counter-revolutionary factionalists, great-power worshippers and the national nihilists. And in the academic world of history, there was a diversity of opinions as to whether the master of the tomb was King Tongmyong or not.

   Korean archaeologists tried to excavate it on several occasions in order to scientifically ascertain the historical fact, but they failed to make progress because it had been neglected for a long period of time and was robbed severely by foreign aggressors, especially the Japanese imperialists.

   The issue of the tomb was the continuous subject of controversy in the academic world, but it remained as a question difficult to solve, and as the time passed it sank into oblivion.

   This was a serious problem. Identifying the tomb of King Tongmyong was an important task. It could be considered as the first page of the nearly 1 000-year history of Koguryo which had a vast territory of 2 400km from east to west and 1 600km from north to south and which demonstrated great strength as a military power in the Asian continent in the middle ages. It was not just a matter of verifying the master of the tomb but an important issue of putting to rights Korea’s history that had been distorted by foreign invaders, great-power worshippers and national nihilists. Otherwise, the history of one period of the nation could be lost for good.

   Just at that time, President Kim Il Sung told officials that it is a great-power worshipping view that the tomb of King Tongmyong is a fake and that since Koguryo was a powerful state its people might have moved the tomb of the founding father of the nation as they transferred their capital to Pyongyang. And busy as he was with state affairs, he inspected the place on several occasions to indicate the orientation of the work to identify the tomb.

   On January 23, Juche 63 (1974), he gave important instructions to the research team of the history faculty of Kim Il Sung University to approach the matter of the tomb of King Tongmyong from the stand point of Juche and carry on the excavation and investigation of the tomb on a full and wide scale.

   Accordingly, the investigation into the tomb of King Tongmyong was made on a full scale under state concern and during the excavation precious remains and relics were discovered, such as several coffin nails decorated in gold and silver, more than a hundred gold ornaments of the crown, beads and combs.

   They also found out mural paintings that were hidden by age-old dripping of water from the ceiling of the tomb, as well as tiles inscribed with letters “Jongrung” and “Rungsa” at the large temple site in front of the tomb. Thus, it became possible to prove that the tomb was built for the late king and the temple in front was built for the tomb.

   President Kim Il Sung not only settled the issue of identifcation of King Tongmyong and his tomb, which had remained unsolved for ages, but also wisely led the efforts to renovate the tomb.

   At that time, in front of the tomb there were several relics like statues of animals and civil and military officials that were erected at the close of the feudal Joson dynasty, but they were very shabby and superstitious, as they were made in a slipshod manner without sincerity for ancestors.

   The monument to the tomb was made of a small rock and the statues of civil and military officials were depicted like dwarfs unlike the the brave and courageous Koguryo people. The same was the case with the stone statues of horse and tiger.

   Early in April, Juche 78 (1989), President Kim Il Sung visited the tomb again and gave detailed instructions on its renovation.

   Since the Koguryo people enjoyed riding and archery from childhood, he said, the stone horse is symbolic of Koguryo and therefore the existing shabby horse should be replaced with a big and high-spirited one and the dying tiger should also be replaced with a big tiger symbolizing the bravery of Korea. He continued to say that the statues of civil and military officials in front of the tomb should be remade excellently so that the spirit of the meritorious vassals at the founding of Koguryo is reflected, that should be made larger than the original one in proportion to the new stone statues, that the Jongrung temple should be restored in the unique temple style of the Koguryo period and build there an exhibition hall of Koguryo relics, that the central axis of the temple should be rearranged in order to make the mausoleum clearly visible, and that a lot of tall pine trees should be planted around the tomb.

   A few days later, the President called the historians to his office and saw the relief map of the layout of the Mausoleum of King Tongmyong together with them. He told them to name the statues of the civil and military officials after the loyal subjects of King Tongmyong and instructed them about the number of the statues of animals and the content of the new epitaph.

   Afterwards, he saw the relief map of the master plan of the mausoleum on several occasions and frequented the reconstruction site irrespective of holidays and cold winter days. He referred to the need to make the tiger three times bigger than the existing one, build the mausoleum and its gates larger and comprehensively renovate the mausoleum as befits the tomb of the founder of Koguryo.

   Saying he was going to renovate the mausoleum better, he pointed to the need to carry out the renovation in a refined way on the principle of historicism and based on historical facts. The Koguryo people built tombs with stones until the 5^th century and afterwards they built them with earth, he said, adding that as the tomb of King Tongmyong was built when it was removed to Pyongyang in the 5^th century, it is needed to construct the platform of the mausoleum with stones and heap up earth over the grave and it is best to set the length of one side of the platform at 35 meters. And when he was informed that the Jongrung Temple constituted an obstacle in the laying of the road in front of the mausoleum, he saw to it that the whole temple was moved to the eastern field, saying that the mausoleum should be flawless since it is a historical relic which would be handed down to posterity.

   Under the detailed and energetic guidance of the President the unveiling ceremony of the mausoleum took place on May 16, Juche 82(1993), that is three years after the beginning of the reconstruction.

   The President visited the mausoleum and as he looked it around with satisfaction he repeatedly said that it was built large and well, it was magnificent, and its surroundings were nice to see as they were arranged properly.

   He beamed with satisfaction all the way and praised the scholars, architects and builders. He said that the epitaph for the renovation of the mausoleum was composed well and its inscription was also done well so that all the people would read it. Saying the height of the monument was appropriate, he stated that the gates of the tomb were small before, but now they were made larger and looked good and imposing. He also said that the colourful paintings of the gates were done well and the statues of four civil officials and four military officials on the both sides in the front of the mausoleum were good to see as the size and number of the statues were appropriate.

   Thus this, under the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung, the time-honoured history and brilliant culture of the Koguryo period, which had been trodden on and distorted by foreign invaders, government-patronized historians and great-power worshippers and which been fading away from the Korean people’s memory with the passage of time, revealed its true image to the world at the present time after a lapse of well over a thousand years.