In July Juche 64 (1975) Yoshiko Otaka, a member of the House of Councilors of Japan, visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a member of the Japanese delegation of influential lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party.
When Otaka was a girl, she engaged herself in comforting the Japanese aggression army in Korea and Manchuria with the name of Ri Hyang Ran.
President Kim Il Sung met the visiting delegation for hours and arranged a dinner for it.
During the dinner, Kim Il Sung asked Otaka whether she was active as a singer in the past in the name of Ri Hyang Ran. He said he could know her name through magazine and film. And he added there should be songs and dances in human life, thus calming down her who was at a loss what to do.
Otaka was moved to tears by such broad-minded magnanimity of the President holding the present more important than the past.
As the delegation was leaving him, he shook their hands one by one, recommending them to go sightseeing in the world-famous Mt. Kumgang when they come again to the DPRK.
Otaka was so fascinated by Kim Il Sung, who gave warm hospitality to them.
When she visited Pyongyang again later, she sang “Song of General Kim Il Sung” in Korean before the President.
