President Kim Il Sung looks at a newly-made rice-seedling transplanter
Whenever April comes round with spring when all things come to life, the Korean people overcome with great yearning for President Kim Il Sung.
They miss him very much because his whole life was dedicated to their happiness.
“The people are my God” was his constant view and lifetime motto.
Born on April 15, 1912 in a straw-thatched house at Mangyongdae, Pyongyang, Kim Il Sung embarked on the road of revolution in his teens. From then on he devoted his all solely to the prosperity of the country and the well-being of the people.
While always mixing himself with the people, he learned what they wanted and desired from their simple words, and saw to it that every line and policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government reflected them. Saying that he should go wherever the people were living even if it was far away and the road to it was rugged, the President continued with his on-the-spot guidance tour without minding snowy and rainy days. One winter day, when he came across soldiers, he felt the cotton-padded shoes they were wearing. When dropping in at a new couple’s house, he looked round the living room, kitchen and store and even looked into the pot to see how they were living as kind-heartedly as their parents should.
On a visit to a farm village, the President sat to knee with the villagers to talk about their farming and appreciated their simple singing. He initiated state steps to provide all schoolchildren across the country with new uniforms season after season as well as school things and visited schools to see the children in new uniforms and took pictures of them.
People’s interests and their demand were the criteria of all his thinking and activities and sharing joy and sorrow with them was his constant leadership principle.
He was happiest when he was among the people and most pleased to see the people’s welfare improving.
In April 1992, the delegation of journalists of Washington Times from the US visited Pyongyang and met the President.
Time passed and when the conversation atmosphere grew livelier, the American journalists asked him how he felt on his birthday and what his hobby was.
He answered that he was truly happy to have lived in the people’s love and trust for 80 years and he would continue to do his best to meet the people’s expectations and prove himself worthy of their trust, adding that he had no particular hobby or amusement of his own and that he was fond of reading and he liked mixing with the people and sharing their company.
Indeed, Kim Il Sung was rather the father of all families of the country than being the leader of the country.
