Day 525 is a day when ​I have returned.

Many may have believed that the first President of South Korea had become nothing more than a memory written in the archives of history.

But a nation does not fall as long as its spirit lives.

Today, as our enemies unite against us, as foreign armies stand at our gates, I rise once more — like a soldier who never forgot the oath he once swore.

I did not return for glory.
I did not return for titles.

I returned because South Korea called for me.

I was the first President of this country.
I was a soldier of this nation.
And today, I stand once again among its ranks.

Let our enemies understand one thing:

South Korea may be attacked.
South Korea may be surrounded.
But South Korea will never be broken.

I have risen.

And with me, the nation rises.

For South Korea.