Foreword

Ten years have passed since President Kim Il Sung passed away.

It is said that, with the passage of time, the agonies, suffered by people, are removed. Perhaps it means that the agonies, even though very great, would remain as sad memories with the passage of time.

However, progressive people of the world yearn for President Kim Il Sung, though days and years go by.

They said that his sudden passing away was the same as the sun stopped sending out light.

July this year marks the tenth anniversary of his passing away. Progressive people of the world now mark the occasion with great admiration for him. Among them there are a lot of our foreign friends who had the honor of meeting President Kim Il Sung.

They have completed pieces of writing in memory of President Kim Il Sung who is praised as a great man and the eternal sun of mankind.

We regard it as glorious to publish this book composed of the pieces of writing completed by the personages in Asia.

Publishing House

Contents

Eternal Sun of Mankind

Vishwanath

The Great Leader Guides the World

OgamiKenichi

The President Symbolizes the Red Flag

Narayan Man Bijukchhe

Continued Affection

Zhang Jin-quan

Great Wisdom

Vessa Burchett

Everlasting Memories

Jyambin Jyamiyan

The President Saved My Life

A.Rahim

Noble Obligation in the History of Friendship

Zhou Wei

President Kim Il Sung is the Personification of Affection

Osorsurengin Cherma

Lifelong Desire

C.P.Mairali

The Socialist Cause Will Without Fail Be Accomplished

Jack McPhillips

The Sun is Always with Us President Kim Il Sung

Romesh Chandra

ETERNAL SUN OF MANKIND

Vishwanath

Director General International Institute of the Juche Idea

Ten years have passed since the great President Kim Il Sung passed away.

However, President Kim Il Sung is alive in the minds of not only the Korean people but also the progressive people of the world.

I was fascinated by the great ideas of President Kim Il Sung. I was also attracted by his great leadership, and began to worship him.

The western world calls the 20^th century the century of the wars, as the First and Second World Wars broke out in that century. The 20^th century is also called the century of science, as science and technology developed rapidly in that century.

However, all progressive people the world over call the 20^th century Kim Il Sung’s century.

Because, as the sun gives light to everything, President Kim Il Sung showed the popular masses, who had been oppressed and ill-treated, the way of their liberation, and made them the masters of their own destiny, by authoring the Juche idea. Therefore, they have regarded it as their desire, glory and good luck to meet President Kim Il Sung.

I had the good luck of meeting the President on twelve occasions.

One day in December 1974, I boarded a plane in Moscow and flew to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

I listened to the loudspeaker in the plane.

The loudspeaker informed the passengers of the situation in Korea.

I asked an air-hostess when the plane would reach Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK.

After her kind reply, I was deep in thought.

At that time nobody knew why I was flying to the DPRK.

From childhood I have striven to acquire a wide range of knowledge and devoted much time to reading books. I am also fond of thinking.

I longed to meet the people who had fought for the freedom and liberation of the working people.

And I was determined to devote myself to the freedom and happiness of our people who had been under the rule of the foreign aggressors.

I read a lot of books about progressive ideas and theories, and met many foreign politicians, trying to find a way of realizing my hope.

The former thinkers put forward a lot of ideas and theories for the building of an ideal society of mankind.

But none of them clarified the decisive factor in the development of history.

One day I read an article in a publication.

The article wrote about the Juche idea authored by President Kim Il Sung.

It also wrote about the realities of the DPRK where the great idea had been embodied.

Reading the article, I understood that the social development could be promoted only by the purposeful and intentional activities of the popular masses, the motive force of history. And I also understood the factors which enabled the DPRK, a once backward country under colonial domination, to complete its socialist industrialization in a short period of time, and to build a people’s paradise in which all the people were living happily.

I was very happy just like an astronomer who had discovered a new star.

In those days I had an opportunity to visit Japan.

I was greatly moved and even surprised there to see the Korean residents who were leading proud lives as the dignified overseas citizens of the DPRK. In the past they were forced to leave Korea, with the sorrow of a ruined nation, and were exploited in Japan. They were even deprived of their national language and customs.

Today, however, they are firmly defending their own national rights.

I thought that President Kim Il Sung, who took care of the Korean people living in foreign countries, was the Korean nation’s father. I felt a strong desire to visit the DPRK.

Therefore, I was on my way to the DPRK to meet President Kim Il Sung, whom I had been yearning for, and receive his valuable teachings, and also to see the realities of the DPRK.

However, I was deep in thought on my way to the DPRK.

I could not believe that the DPR of Korea, a small country, accomplished such wonderful achievements in a short period of time because, in the past, it had been a backward agricultural country under the colonial rule of Japan, and it had to undergo a three-year-long war (June 1950-July 1953).

It is still under the constant threat from the USA.

I continued thinking.

I requested an air-hostess to tell me about Korea’s history and nature, as well as the realities of her country.

With a friendly smile on her face, she told me about them.

I was particularly impressed by her remarks that President Kim Il Sung regarded the air-hostesses as his own daughters, taking a deep care of their lives.

I admired President Kim Il Sung for his affection for the people.

I asked another air-hostess how many children President Kim Il Sung had.

She answered me that the great leader had fifty million children.

I was greatly surprised by her reply.

I could not believe her, though I had heard that a president of a capitalist country had many children.

The plane landed at Pyongyang.

I parted from them, feeling doubtful about the fifty million children.

Upon my arrival in the DPRK, I found everything impressive.

December is a cold month in Korea.

However, the streets of Pyongyang were crowded with the lively people.

During my stay in the DPRK I was enormously impressed by the Korean people’s great admiration for President Kim Il Sung.

I learnt that it was thanks to the unity, in which all the people were united behind President Kim Il Sung, and to the close relations between the leader and the people, that the DPRK had made great achievements even in the difficult conditions in which everything had been destroyed by the war, and in a tense situation in which another war would break out at any moment.

I was convinced that the outstanding leadership of President Kim Il Sung, who regarded the popular masses as the motive force of history, brought about a powerful industry, a developed agriculture and a life in which the people lived happily.

One day I had an opportunity to visit the Kumsong Tractor Plant.

In the past it was a small factory which produced hoes, sickles and other farm implements. But it has developed into a large modern tractor factory. An official of the plant told me about the history of making the first tractor.

He said the first tractor was made in a very difficult condition, even without a design.

I could not believe him, and requested him to tell me in detail.

He told me that the workers and technicians of the plant had worked a miracle, with a determination to play the role of the masters of the plant, though they lacked in high technical skill.

He said that they had been encouraged by President Kim Il Sung’s trust in them.

Hearing him, I thought that the miracle had been worked by the unity of the workers and technicians who highly respected President Kim Il Sung. I also thought the miracle had been worked by the wisdom shown by the workers and technicians who had relied on their own strength.

One day I saw a Korean feature film.

The film had a scene in which a servicewoman was filling in an application form to apply for membership of the Workers’ Party of Korea. But she could not write her father’s name in the form, because she did not know his name. She lost her parents when she was very young.

At that moment an officer told her that Marshal Kim Il Sung could be called the father of the orphans, who had shown warm affection for them. He suggested her to write the name of President Kim Il Sung in the form. The scene enormously moved me.

The film made me understand the meaning of the remark made by the air-hostess, who had told me that President Kim Il Sung had fifty million children.

That night I could not bring myself to sleep. And I began to write down my impressions of the DPRK.

My writing was later composed as the account of my visit to the DPRK, titled One Country, One People and One Leader.

In the account I wrote about my first impressions of the DPRK as follows:

“Self-reliance and firm determination - these are the appearances of the DPRK.

I have read many books about the great achievements made by the Korean people’s respected leader President Kim Il Sung.

Reading them, I had a strong desire to visit the DPRK, a great country.

When I boarded an aircraft from the DPRK, the air-hostesses were singing their patriotic songs.

They looked as if they had no worry.

I asked them, ‘What worry do you have in your lives?’

They answered me that they had no worry, because President Kim Il Sung took a deep care of their lives.

I was convinced that the Korean people regarded the President as their father.”

I also wrote about the source of the great strength of the Korean people.

“President Kim Il Sung authored the Juche idea.

He was convinced that victory would be won, if the people displayed the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance, the idea of relying on one’s own strength.

The Juche idea is the most powerful weapon, stronger than the nuclear weapon.”

Day was dawning as I completed writing.

And the snow was falling.

Looking out of the window, I felt a stronger desire to meet President Kim Il Sung.

But I thought it was not in accordance with the human obligation that I would try to meet him, because I had not done anything which would please such a great man.

Therefore, I kept my desire to meet President Kim Il Sung in my mind and, before leaving the DPRK, requested my guide to make his efforts for me so that I would keep a portrait of President Kim Il Sung in my house.

I said to an official who had come to the airport to say farewell to me, “Though I leave your country, a great and beautiful country, my mind would remain here.

I would revisit your country to have the honor of meeting the respected President Kim Il Sung.”

The Korean people celebrated the 65^th birthday of President Kim Il Sung in April 1977.

At that time I revisited the DPRK, in order to meet President Kim Il Sung and to wish him long life and good health.

But I thought that I might regret if I would try to make the President spend his busy time in meeting me.

So I gave up my plan of meeting the President, and visited many places, to have a deeper knowledge about the realities of the DPRK and experience the lives of the Korean people.

One day, however, I received the glad news that President Kim Il Sung would meet me.

My heart was thumping with excitement. I never dreamt that I would be able to meet my desire so easily.

Guided by an official, I got on a car.

The car started to run fast. I began to think about what I would ask the President.

When the car was passing through the outskirts of Pyongyang, the official told me that I was travelling to a distant local area, where the President was giving on-the-spot guidance.

Listening to him, I was moved by the noble virtue of the President who was taking care of the people in a distant local area, instead of spending his birthday in Pyongyang, receiving congratulations from the people.

The car finally reached a building at the foot of a mountain.

President Kim Il Sung was waiting for me in a garden, in which flowers were in full bloom.

The President shook my hands, and expressed his thanks to me for having taken the trouble of making a long journey.

Being in the grips of a strong emotion, I was at a complete loss for words.

As if to calm me down, the President began to stroll around in the garden together with me, asking me about my health and that of the members of my family, and told me about the spring of Korea.

I was calmed down and attracted by his generosity, and began to talk with him in a familiar way.

After a while he took me to a room.

I wished him long life and good health, and said that I regarded it as glorious to celebrate his birthday in the DPRK, the country of Juche.

He thanked me.

I told him that I had been greatly moved by the fact that he was giving on-the-spot guidance to a local area far away from the capital, at the time when the entire Korean people were celebrating his birthday.

With a smile on his face, he said he felt happy with the workers and farmers. And he said that a large factory was under construction there, and added that he had come there to guide the construction.

I was greatly moved by his words. I came to know about his noble virtue of always being with the people.

I told President Kim Il Sung that he was a great man who was devoting himself to the freedom and happiness of the people.

I also told him that he had wisely led the Korean people in their struggle to build a people’s paradise, and added about the greatness of the Juche idea.

President Kim Il Sung thanked me for my words and added that, in the future, he would do more work to meet my expectations and those of his other friends.

He said that I had conducted much activities in support of the Korean people’s struggle, adding that I was not only his friend but also his comrade-in-arms.

He said he was very glad that I had become his comrade-in-arms, in the course of the struggle for the liberation of mankind.

I was moved by his trust in me.

The President requested me to make a joint effort to build a new, independent world free from exploitation and oppression.

I was fascinated by his generosity, and told him in detail about my literary activities, which I planned to conduct after returning home.

I also informed him that, during my visit to Japan, I had experienced the lives of the Korean residents there, and added that they were leading a worthwhile life, with a pride that they are the overseas citizens of the DPRK.

I told him whether I could avail myself of the opportunity to ask him about something more.

He kindly told me to ask him any questions.

I began to ask him about some other matters.

First, I told him that the USA was stationing its 40,000 troops, armed with nuclear weapons, in south Korea, and asked him what he thought about it.

He told me that the USA was keeping the nuclear weapons to threaten the DPRK, and that the US army would not dare use the nuclear weapons, because of being afraid of the world public.

He added that the DPRK had the great strength of the united popular masses, the strength which was more powerful than the nuclear weapons.

He said that, though the US was trying to threaten the south Korean people through military exercises, the people in south Korea were continuing their struggle against the US.

He said that where there was exploitation, there would be a struggle of the people. He said it is a law of the revolutionary struggle.

Listening carefully to President Kim Il Sung, who regarded the strength of the popular masses as a source of victory, I felt more deeply the profound truth of the Juche idea.

I told him that Carter, in his presidential election campaign commitment, announced he would withdraw the US army from south Korea, asking him what would be the best way of making use of that opportunity.

President Kim Il Sung, with a meaningful look on his face, said that Carter’s presidential election speech, in which he had announced that he would withdraw the US army from south Korea and not give “assistance” to the countries where the human rights had been violated, could be called a good commitment. He continued, however, there had been contradictions in Carter’s commitment, and mentioned about its falsehood.

President Kim Il Sung told me that Carter, though announcing he would withdraw the US army from south Korea in four or five years, had said the withdrawal of the US army

would be able to be realized when an agreement between the US, Japan and south Korea has been reached.

The President said that the remarks made by Carter were unreasonable.

He said it was well known to the world that the south Korean authorities opposed the withdrawal of US troops from south Korea, and added that the US could never reach an agreement with them, concerning the withdrawal of US troops from south Korea.

The President continued that it would also be impossible for the US to reach an agreement with the Japanese reactionaries, who supported the stationing of US troops in south Korea. He said that Carter’s announcement of withdrawing the US troops from south Korea in four or five years was the same as he would not withdraw them during his term of office.

He emphasized that, in order to withdraw the US troops from south Korea, the popular masses should conduct a struggle to drive them out, instead of just waiting for them to withdraw themselves.

I admired the President for his logic words.

Concerning Carter’s announcement that he would not give “assistance” to the countries, where human rights had been violated, President Kim Il Sung said that his announcement should be tested in practice, to check whether it had been a mere false propaganda or intended to create a political illusion.

President Kim Il Sung added that Carter, although he had announced that he would not give “assistance” to the countries where human rights were being violated, continued to increase “assistance” to south Korea, while arming their south Korean puppet army with modern military equipment.

Much time went by.

But I had many more questions to ask him.

Therefore, I told him I would ask him one more question.

I asked him what he thought about a final solution to Korea’s reunification.

With a smile on his face, he said that, needless to say, it would be to achieve the reunification through a concerted effort of the entire Korean nation, and added that no foreigners would be able to make a gift of the reunification to the Korean people.

I also smiled and agreed with him. I told him that Carter would not bestow the reunification on the Korean people.

The President said the entire Korean people wanted the independent reunification, and emphasized that, in order to achieve Korea’s reunification, the south Korean people should be awakened so that they would conduct the struggle against the US.

Frankly speaking, I really did not want to part from the President. However, I knew that he had already spent much time talking with me.

I stood up, reluctant to leave him.

Shaking my hands warmly, the President requested me to come again.

He added that, if I would come again, he would spend much more time with me, talking.

Since then I regarded it as a requirement of my life to visit Pyongyang about once every year, to get the teachings of President Kim Il Sung.

Whenever I met President Kim Il Sung, I felt that he was an outstanding thinker and theoretician.

There are many boastful thinkers and theoreticians in the world. They enjoy demonstrating their knowledge, even using some expressions which the ordinary people cannot understand.

However, President Kim Il Sung made the people understand well what he said, by using the expressions widely used by them, and by taking some examples. Thanks to him, the people were able to understand even about the profound truths.

I visited the DPRK and met President Kim Il Sung in the early 1990s.

During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the masses’ cause of independence, the cause of socialism, encountered a grave challenge. The machinations of the imperialists and the renegades from socialism led to the collapse of socialism and the revival of capitalism in the Soviet Union and the East European countries.

When I met with President Kim Il Sung, he told me about independence.

The President said that each nation should maintain political independence, and do everything in accordance with its interests.

He told me that, after the Korean war, the DPRK had conducted a lot of exchanges with the former Soviet Union.

But the latter did not like the former, because the former had taken the independent way.

He said that at one point the Soviets brought heavy pressure to bear upon the DPR of Korea to apply for membership in the CMEA.

They claimed that, if the DPRK entered the CMEA, they would permit the latter to use electricity produced by a large hydroelectric power station situated in the vicinity of Lake Baikal.

At that time the President told them: “We will not use electricity generated by the power station; if we become dependent on electricity from you and then you fail to supply it, then we would suffer greatly; if we have funds for transmission cables from the power station to our country, it would be more effective for us to use these funds to build another hydroelectric power station in our country. It has become more clear today that our decision to build socialism by our own efforts on the principle of self-reliance and not enter the CMEA was quite correct.”

The President added that his people were not afraid of anything, though the USA clamored about “nuclear inspection”, “economic sanctions”, etc. in order to stifle the DPRK.

I thought his words implied a great truth applicable to every country.

When I met him many years ago, he asked me about my health.

He also asked me about the health of Mr. Mukherjee, saying he might be very old.

I replied that he was 77 years old and, because of his poor health, could not visit the DPRK.

President Kim Il Sung showed a deep affection for him.

President Kim Il Sung requested me to convey his invitation to Mr. Mukherjee to visit the DPRK, and receive a medical treatment. He added that he would mobilize all the famous Korean medical doctors in order to cure his illness.

Whenever I visited the DPRK, the President told me to come again together with my wife and children.

He once received the information on my visit to the DPRK.

At that time he was giving on-the-spot guidance to South Hwanghae Province and Nampho City.

The President saw to it that measures were taken so that I could have a good rest in the Sindok area with a beautiful scenery.

When I arrived there, President Kim Il Sung was waiting for me.

He embraced me warmly, and told me that there was a nearby place, called Kumdang-ri, where famous Sindok spring water was gushing out.

He added that the spring water was more enjoyable to drink than Evian water of France, and that Sihanouk stopped drinking Evian water after he had found the Sindok spring water more enjoyable to drink.

He also told me about the legend of Kumdang-ri, and added that there were a lot of very old people, aged 90, 100 and 110. He requested me to come to the DPRK frequently and drink the spring water.

After meeting President Kim Il Sung, I was deeply involved in writing, with a great enthusiasm, as if I had become young again.

I introduced a fixed column titled Korea into the newspaper Indian Times and wrote such articles as The Life Devoted to the Happiness of the Korean People and Korea and the Non-aligned Movement. The articles received a positive response from the readers.

I continued to write about President Kim Il Sung’s lofty virtue, the greatness of the Juche idea and about my impressions on the DPRK.

Whenever I went to the DPRK, I visited various places in Pyongyang and the local areas.

One day I visited Changgwang Street in Pyongyang City.

A householder welcomed me.

I looked round the rooms, with a deep interest.

I was impressed by the rooms with heated floor.

Touching the heated floor, I told the householder that I had never seen such a floor during my visits to many countries.

Wearing a look of surprise, the householder told me the following story.

After the Korean war, fireplaces were set into the walls of the houses in Changgwang Street (Loop-line Street at that time).

But the fireplaces were unable to warm the wooden floor properly, and the people felt cold.

President Kim Il Sung was informed of it, and could not bring himself to sleep. And he visited the street in one early morning in November 1955.

He entered a room with a cool wooden floor.

He said that the Koreans like warm floor, and told the builders to make the floors heated in accordance with the Korean style.

I was moved by President Kim Il Sung’s love for the people.

I felt that the Juche idea had been embodied in the lives of the people.

I also visited the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital and the Ice-rink, built magnificently under the guidance of President Kim Il Sung.

And I visited the Changgwang Health Complex, and had a bath and had my hair cut there.

The complex is a service establishment set up for the people.

I had visited a lot of famous establishments in Singapore, Hong Kong and many other countries.

But I could not see such a good establishment as the complex, built for the service of the people.

At the international seminar on the Juche idea, held in Pyongyang, 1 made a speech The Juche Idea is a Philosophical Idea which Indicates the Way of Achieving What Mankind Had Failed to Achieve.

Before my speech, I expressed my deep thanks to President Kim Il Sung, author of the Juche idea, and the Sun, and the most respected leader of the people of the world.

And I recited the poem Sun written by myself.

The forest is silent and

The beautiful flowers are in full bloom.

The birds are singing away happily,

While the cows grazing in the fields

And corn rippling in the breeze

See the light of the sun.

The sun sends out light to

The clouds,

The snow-covered hills,

And the beaches.

Ah, the Sun is rising

Brightening the universe.

The Juche idea is enlightening

The human race.

Ah, Sun is rising!

The poem represented my heartfelt feelings.

The poem also represented the deep feelings of the participants.

Therefore, my poem received tumultuous applause from the participants.

In my speech I spoke about the greatness of the Juche idea. I still remember that my speech received enthusiastic applause from the participants.

“The Juche idea has been embodied in the lives of the Korean people. The idea is the beacon of hope for all progressive people the world over.

The greatness of the Juche idea lies in the fact that it has put the revolutionary ideas of the working class on a new philosophical basis, thus showing a most scientific viewpoint to the world.

The Juche viewpoint and attitude to the world are truly revolutionary in that they enable men to transform the world and shape their destiny independently, creatively and consciously, with a high degree of awareness that they are masters of the world and their own destiny.”

The participants in the seminar extended their full support to my speech. Many of them sincerely congratulated me.

President Kim Il Sung met me again on the day before I left the DPRK.

He said he was very pleased with my revisit to his country.

He asked me about my health and that of the members of my family.

He also asked me if I had any inconvenience during my stay in his country.

I was moved by his benevolence, and answered him in detail. I informed him that the international seminar on the Juche idea, held in Pyongyang, ended in a great success.

I told him that the Korean people had made brilliant achievements in the socialist construction.

He told me that he would not talk to me in a diplomatic way, because I was his comrade-in-arms, brother and comrade, and said that it would be most important to achieve the independence of the world, for the happiness of mankind and the world peace.

And he explained to me about the things that should be done to achieve it.

I paid deep attention to what he said, as if I were a student taught by a professor.

And I was determined to propagate the Juche idea, holding President Kim Il Sung in high esteem as my eternal teacher, and make a contribution to the cause of independence of the world.

He told me to visit his country again with my wife and children.

I wished him long life and good health.

In April 1982 I visited the DPR of Korea to congratulate President Kim Il Sung on his 70^th birthday.

Together with other foreigners, I was kindly invited to attend a joint meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK.

I was able to have an opportunity to see President Kim Il Sung who would attend the meeting, and my heart was thumping with excitement.

Amid enthusiastic cheers, President Kim Il Sung came onto the platform.

Together with the participants in the meeting, I shouted hurrah.

At that moment I was very glad to see His Excellency Kim Jong Il, whom I had desired to meet.

A few days before the meeting, I had read His Excellency Kim Jong Il’s work On the Juche Idea.

Reading it, I regarded His Excellency Kim Jong Il as an ideological and theoretical genius.

After President Kim Il Sung’s speech, there was a break.

I went out into the corridor of the meeting house and tried to meet His Excellency Kim Jong Il.

His Excellency Kim Jong Il recognized me. He was very pleased to meet me. And he took me to a room.

I told His Excellency Kim Jong Il that he had assisted President Kim Il Sung with his work, in a most faithful manner.

With a friendly smile on his face, His Excellency Kim Jong Il told me that I had the same close relationship with President Kim Il Sung as he had.

I was moved by his words. I told him that I had greatly admired him for his outstanding leadership abilities. I added that, under his energetic guidance, the construction of the Tower of the Juche Idea, the Arch of Triumph, the Grand People’s Study House, the Ice Rink, the Changgwang Health Complex and other monumental edifices had been completed in a short period of time, as the world-class edifices.

After hearing me, His Excellency Kim Jong Il said that all those edifices had been built by the Korean people and that he was only one of them, and added that he only carried out the instructions of the great leader.

I admired him for his humble personality.

I was convinced that mankind would have a brighter future and that the Juche idea would emerge victorious in the world, as there is another great leader, who is wisely leading the struggle to complete the cause of President Kim Il Sung.

I had the honor of meeting President Kim Il Sung, on the 12^th occasion, on September 8, 1993.

I had never thought that it would be my last meeting with him.

When I went to the place where he was, he had just returned to Pyongyang from South Hwanghae Province (located in the southern part of the DPRK), where he had given on-the-spot guidance.

At that time President Kim Il Sung told me the following story.

Yonbaek Field is one of the largest fields in the DPRK. In the past the field was not productive because of a shortage of water.

President Kim Il Sung saw to it that a project to construct a water canal was conducted and the water of the Taedong River was used to irrigate the field.

Looking round the field, he found that a good harvest had been made in it.

The farmers there told him that the irrigation had brought about the good harvest.

In the past period before the irrigation, the water in the fields, warmed during the hot season, could not be replaced with cool water, causing the roots of the rice to be rotten. It seemed as if the rice was covered with a thick blanket in the hot seasons.

But, after the irrigation, the warm water was able to be replaced frequently with cool water. And it seemed as if the rice was covered with a thin sheet of cloth, instead of the thick blanket. As a result, farming was able to be done in a proper way.

I was moved by the story.

I think there has been no one who heard a story that the rice was grown, covered with a thick blanket and a thin sheet of cloth.

President Kim Il Sung said that agriculture was the great foundation of the country.

Agriculture can be called the great foundation of a country, because man’s destiny is directly connected with agriculture, which supplies food and other things to the people.

President Kim Il Sung valued agriculture, with a deep knowledge of the farming methods, in order to make the people happy.

The President was indeed the great father of the Korean people.

The President’s wisdom and intelligence, devotion and enthusiasm turned the DPRK into a paradise, in which people live happily, enjoying free education, free medical service and all other favorable conditions concerning housing and employment.

The DPR of Korea is indeed a people’s paradise.

President Kim Il Sung’s life was indeed a life devoted to the happiness of the people.

I never thought that the heart of such a great man as President Kim Il Sung would stop beating.

Still, I don’t think President Kim Il Sung passed away.

He is eternal like the sun is eternal. When the funeral ceremony of President Kim Il Sung was broadcast on television, I saw the portrait of the President with a sunny smile on his face, set at the head of the procession that carried his coffin.

At that moment I felt as if my sorrow began to be removed and the sun started to shine brightly.

Wiping my eyes, I started thinking about General Kim Jong Il, another great man, who had shown the people the portrait of President Kim Il Sung with a sunny smile on his face, when the funeral ceremony was held.

And I deeply felt that President Kim Il Sung would be immortal.

General Kim Jong Il gave the people of the world mental strength and courage, by means of one portrait.

Seeing General Kim Jong Il on television, I was confident that there is another great man, just the same as President Kim Il Sung.

General Kim Jong Il saw to it that the Kumsusan Assembly Hall where President Kim Il Sung stayed for a long time and guided the Party and the State work, and met heads of state of foreign countries and the foreign followers of the Juche idea, was renamed the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, the Kumsusan area was built into the sacred temple of Juche, President Kim Il Sung is laid in state in the palace as he was in his lifetime.

General Kim Jong Il also saw to it that the Korean people armed themselves more firmly with the revolutionary ideas of President Kim Il Sung.

He is now leading the Korean revolution and the world revolution in such a way that the revolutionary history of President Kim Il Sung would be made as ever.

As there is His Excellency Kim Jong Il, President Kim Il Sung is alive in the minds of the people of the world, as the sun of Juche.

The progressive people of the world say, “President Kim Il Sung was indeed a great man.

He is the eternal sun of mankind.”

I would like to remind the readers of my piece of writing of a passage from the poem Korea, written by Tagore, the famous Indian poet.

In his poem Tagore foretold that the lamp of the Golden Age of Asia would be lit again to illumine the East.

Korea, which holds General Kim Jong Il as another sun, would shine forever as the sun’s nation.

THE GREAT LEADER GUIDES THE WORLD

Ogami Kenichi

Secretary General International Institute of the Juche Idea

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the passing away of President Kim Il Sung, I recall with emotion the days when I had the honor of meeting him. At the same time I am enormously grateful to him for his helping me to lead a true life.

In April 1975 I was honored with the audience of President Kim Il Sung. At that time I was visiting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

It was my desire to meet President Kim Il Sung, and my such desire became stronger during my visit to the DPRK. But, at the same time I regarded it as unimaginable to have the honor of meeting such a great man as President Kim Il Sung.

But, luckily, I had the glory of meeting him.

On April 16, President Kim Il Sung met me and a Japanese scholar, though he was very busy with state affairs.

We were filled with a great emotion, and got on a car to go to a building to meet him. We used a lift to go upstairs.

When the door of the lift opened, we saw President Kim Il Sung waiting for us, with a smile on his face.

At that moment I felt a great pleasure.

I said to myself, “Ah, how long I have waited for this moment!

At last I have met my desire to meet the President who showed me the glorious road of Juche and a bright future”.

He welcomed us, shaking hands with each of us. And he posed for a souvenir photograph with us.

He took us to a room.

I took a seat beside him.

He first asked us about our health, and said he felt as if he met his old friends, although he met us for the first time.

He added that we became friends with each other, who shared a same ideology and will.

The President encouraged us in our efforts for making the Japanese people have a deeper understanding about Korea, and added that our such efforts made a great contribution to the strengthening of the friendship between Korea and Japan.

The President said that the destinies of the Korean and Japanese peoples were closely related to each other. He continued that he thought the Korean people and the Japanese people shared the same ideals in view of their struggle to oppose imperialism and their common desire for peace in Asia. And he said that unity between the peoples of our two countries was very important.

President Kim Il Sung said that the present era is the era of independence.

He was convinced that the struggle conducted by the revolutionary peoples of the world, who aspired to independence, would emerge victorious.

He said that the newly-emerging countries, to say nothing of the socialist countries, were conducting their struggle for independence, adding that a lot of capitalist countries, too, demanded independence.

He continued that independence was becoming an ideological trend.

He informed us that the heads of state, ordinary peoples and intellectuals from Africa, whom he had met, mentioned about independence.

The President regarded us as his comrades-in-arms and requested us to make a joint effort to awaken the people of the world to the struggle for independence.

His words gave us a great encouragement.

The President regarded us as his comrades-in-arms who, together with him, were conducting the struggle for independence, though we lacked in experience.

We told him that, though the activities to study and propagate the Juche idea were conducted in Japan, the number of the persons involved in such activities was small and they lacked in experience.

After hearing us, President Kim Il Sung said that the number of the persons would be increased, just like a spark could be used to make a fire.

His words gave us still further encouragement.

President Kim Il Sung helped each of us to cakes and offered us cigarettes.

I soon felt at ease. And I also felt as if I was meeting my own father.

I could not bring myself to sleep that night. I was filled with pleasure of having met my desire to meet the President whom I dreamed to meet for a long time. And I was impressed by his kindness. I was also filled with honor and pleasure of leading my life, learning from such a great man.

I was born and grew up in a poor family, and completed a night senior school while working. Through my life, I felt it necessary to transform the Japanese society, which was full of contradictions, and took part in the student movement.

But I failed in my struggle, and my friends, who had conducted struggle together with me, went their separate ways, in search of “stable” jobs.

I could not find a correct method of struggle.

However, I continued to conduct various activities to reform the society, but still failed in finding out the correct method.

At that time I read a book about the brief history of President Kim Il Sung.

Reading it, I regarded it as a greatest happiness of the progressive people of the world that they had such a great leader as President Kim Il Sung.

And I was convinced that, if we would follow President Kim Il Sung and take his ideas as our guiding principle, we would be able to develop the Japanese youth movement, which failed to make progress.

After I was honored with the audience of President Kim Il Sung, I felt he was the greatest leader of the revolution.

It is true that such great leaders as Marx, Engels and Lenin appeared in the modern history of mankind, and made great achievements. But 50 or 100 years have gone by since they conducted their activities.

Though they created the guiding ideologies in their respective era, they passed away without completely putting them into practice. And they were prominent only in some fields.

I regarded President Kim Il Sung as the greatest leader who surpassed them in theories and qualities.

Back home, I conducted the activities to inform our people of the greatness of the President.

In April 1976, on the occasion of the 64^th birthday of President Kim Il Sung, I proposed the construction of a youth center, in order to promote the study of the Juche idea in my country.

My proposal met with positive response from our young people. As a result, the center was built in about half a year.

We started publishing the theoretical magazine Study on Kimilsungism.

And we published the book Theory on Youth, compiled from President Kim Il Sung’s works on the youth movement.

In those days a large number of young people in many parts of Japan conducted the activities to organize the groups for the study of the Juche idea.

In September 1977 an international seminar on the Juche idea was held in Pyongyang.

At the seminar I delivered a speech, titled The Great Kimilsungism is Becoming the Most Powerful Guiding Idea Also in the Revolutionary Struggle Conducted in the Developed Capitalist Countries.

In my speech at the seminar, I expressed my views on the present era as follows:

“Our era is the era which is advancing along the road indicated by Kimilsungism.

We can lead our revolutionary struggle to victory, only when we have correct revolutionary ideas and guiding principles.

The correct revolutionary ideas give answers to all the questions raised by an era. This shows us that the characteristics of an era is defined by its guiding ideas.

In this light, the period before more than 100 or 50 years can be called the era of Marxism and Leninism, and the present era can be called the era of Kimilsungism.

Our era is led by the great President Kim Il Sung.

In their lifetime Marx and Lenin played their roles in the limited fields, and Marxism and Leninism became universal ideas after they passed away.

But Kimilsungism has already become the current thought of the world and captured the hearts of the world people in the present era when President Kim Il Sung is conducting energetic activities.

This shows the greatness of Kimilsungism.

Our era can be called the era of Kimilsungism, when the people of the world are united behind President Kim Il Sung and, under his guidance, conduct the revolution and construction.”

Concluding my speech, I emphasized the need to establish an international organization for the promotion of the study of the Juche idea.

The seminar accepted my proposal and those of other representatives from many countries, and decided to set up an international organization for the promotion of the study of the Juche idea.

I had the honor of meeting the President again.

During my stay in Pyongyang, the President, though very busy, met us and posed for a photograph with us. He also provided us with valuable gifts.

In the evening of September 23, an official from the Korean Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries came to our lodging and told us the glad news that President Kim Il Sung would meet our delegation.

I was so happy that night.

The following day, I left my lodging to meet him.

Out of the window of our car, I could see various beautiful flowers in full bloom.

The flowers looked as if they were congratulating me who was soon to meet the President.

At this happy moment I recalled my meeting the President a few days ago, in the Kumsusan Assembly Hall, with the representatives from many countries, who participated in the seminar.

On that day the President entered a big hall where the representatives stood in a line, waiting for him.

They were filled with the pleasure of meeting President Kim Il Sung, author of the Juche idea, and shouted in chorus, Juche!, Kim Il Sung!.

And some of them shouted, Long live President Kim Il Sung!.

The President shook hands with each of us and posed for a souvenir photograph with us.

On that day I felt again that the President was the greatest leader in the world.

We arrived at the place where we would meet the President.

President Kim Il Sung received us at the entrance to a building.

I informed the President of the activities conducted by the Japanese youth and students who were studying the Juche idea and conveyed to him the warm greetings from the young Japanese believers of Kimilsungism.

After hearing me, he said, “Thank you.”

The President said that the world people were desirous of studying the Juche idea. He also expressed his views on the prospects for the activities to study the Juche idea, on the relations between Japan and the DPRK, and on the international situation.

The President also mentioned about the activities conducted by the young Japanese people.

I was moved by his attention to the young Japanese people.

The President said that he had planned to spend the morning with us, and talked with us for a long time.

He made important remarks at the luncheon.

During the luncheon, I was unable to eat the foods properly because I was writing down what he was saying to us. Looking at me, he offered me foods, and proposed my good health. He was very generous and kind.

That day he spent four hours with us.

When I came back to my lodging, I felt as if the difficulties, with which I had been faced with in my activities, were removed, and there was a bright future for me.

Back home, I informed the representatives of the youth groups for the study of the Juche idea, organized in many parts of Japan, of my meeting with President Kim Il Sung.

The representatives were greatly moved by the affection that the President showed to the young people in Japan, who were studying the Juche idea. And they made up their minds to follow the road of Juche and make a concerted effort to embody the Juche idea in the Japanese society.

Indeed, the great President Kim II Sung was not only the father of the Korean people but also the teacher of the people of the world.

Therefore, a large number of young people in many parts of Japan respect him highly, and study the Juche idea.

The Juche idea gives the Japanese people great encouragement, and the number of the Japanese people, desirous of studying the Juche idea is increasing, and the activities to study and propagate the Juche idea are also becoming more energetic with each passing day.

The Japanese National Liaison Council of the Society for the Study of Works of President Kim Il Sung held the tenth national meeting for the scientific discussion of the Juche idea from November 19 to November 20. The participants in the meeting unanimously supported and welcomed the decision, taken by the Organizing Committee of the International Institute of the Juche Idea, on the establishment of the Institute in Tokyo.

On April 9, 1978, the inaugural meeting of the International Institute of the Juche Idea was held, and it was announced that the Institute was established.

It was a great honor and pride of all the peoples who live in the present era, the era of Kimilsungism.

Thanks to the establishment of an international standing organization for the promotion of the study and propagation of the Juche idea, the people of the world were able to advance more vigorously along the road indicated by the Juche idea.

Today the people of the world continue their activities to study and propagate the Juche idea, with a great admiration for President Kim Il Sung.

THE PRESIDENT SYMBOLIZES THE RED FLAG

Narayan Man Bijukchhe

Chairman Workers’ and Peasants’ Party of Nepal

It is said that the father of a family should be served well, if the members of the family wanted their family to be prosperous from generation to generation.

It is so true that only few people doubt it.

While I was visiting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, I deeply felt that the father of a family should be served well for the family’s happiness and that the leader of a country should be held in high esteem for the country’s prosperity.

“Even mountains and rivers will change in ten years”, as the Korean saying goes.

Ten years have passed since President Kim Il Sung passed away.

During the past ten years many changes took place in the world.

However, there has been no change in my yearning for President Kim Il Sung.

In July 1994 I received the sad news that President Kim Il Sung passed away.

But I couldn’t believe it, and visited the DPRK Embassy to my country to confirm it.

I cherished the memory of President Kim Il Sung with reverence. I respected him, and met him on several occasions.

In August 1995 I visited the DPRK, to share my grief together with the Korean people.

President Kim Il Sung was a hero who defeated imperialist forces and saved the Korean people.

In his early thirties, the President defeated the Japanese imperialists and liberated Korea, and in his early forties, he defeated the US imperialists who boasted themselves of being the “strongest” in the world.

By these brilliant feats, he was praised as a great man and the savior of the Korean nation.

In the past the Korean people were maltreated and exploited, as they had not been led by a great leader.

President Kim Il Sung made them a proud people with bravery.

The history of the President’s leadership was an immortal history which could be made only by a great revolutionary who devoted his life to the happiness of the people.

During my stay in the DPRK, I went up the Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, where there is a statue of President Kim Il Sung.

Looking up at the statue, I thought that President Kim Il Sung was a great man. And I could not believe that he passed away. The passing away of President Kim Il Sung was a great loss for the progressive people of the world.

A politician once said that the DPRK had become the focus of international attention, though its size and population were not large.

He also said that the DPRK, under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung, exerted a great influence on world politics.

It was natural that the people of the world, irrespective of their political views, religious beliefs, nationalities and languages, cherished the memory of President Kim Il Sung, with reverence, because he was a great man.

I thought about immortality.

Religion preaches that immortality is possible in the heaven and a paradise. And the ancient Egyptians said that when a person dies, his spirit continues to exist in his body. However, I was disillusioned with them.

And I was not pleased with the information that a young man of Switzerland survived, after he had been buried in snow for 25 years, while climbing the steep Alps in 1962. Nor was I happy with the theory about the prolongation of human life in a low temperature.

I visited the DPRK in August 1995, to participate in the celebrations held in honor of the 50th anniversary of Korea’s liberation.

During my visit I happened to find a new truth.

During my stay I visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, which had been called the Kumsusan Assembly Hall.

I was surprised to see the hall, because it had been rebuilt magnificently in a short period of time.

There I could see tramcars and a wide square.

And everything inside the palace fascinated me.

I came to learn that the hall had been rebuilt magnificently thanks to the noble idea and energetic guidance of Comrade Kim Jong Il.

I bowed before the statue of President Kim Il Sung.

And I visited the late President lying in state.

The President was under a red flag.

The red flag symbolized his revolutionary history.

I felt as if he would get up and welcome me.

At that moment I remembered the days when I met him.

I met him for the second time on April 15, 1992.

That day marked his 80th birthday.

On April 13, I arrived in Pyongyang, to take part in the celebrations held in honor of his birthday, as the representative of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party of Nepal.

Various celebration functions took place not only in the capital but also in other parts of the country.

More than 420 delegations from over 130 countries came to Pyongyang.

I thought that his birthday was being celebrated not only as the greatest holiday of the Korean people but also as a great festival of mankind.

On the occasion of his birthday, the Korean people expressed their deep thanks to President Kim Il Sung, who devoted his life to the happiness of the people.

We went to the place where he was, to congratulate him on his birthday.

Present there were the heads of state of foreign countries, leaders of foreign parties and governments, and numerous others.

We congratulated him on his birthday.

And we wished him long life and good health.

He thanked us and posed for a photograph with us.

We were invited to attend a grand banquet given by the Government of the DPRK, held in honor of the 80th birthday of President Kim Il Sung.

President Kim Il Sung delivered a speech at the banquet.

Over ten years have passed since then.

However, I still clearly remember his speech.

He said:

“It seems only yesterday that I crossed the Amnok River, determined not to return home without liberating my country, but now I am 80 years old. With so many comrades and friends congratulating me on my 80th birthday today, I cannot repress my surging emotions.”

Indeed, his life can be called a life of struggle for the happiness of the people.

President Kim Il Sung regarded the masses of the people as the subject of history and the motive force of social progress.

He believed in the people and relied on them.

With the participants in the banquet, I responded to his speech with an enthusiastic applause.

He continued that the common task facing the progressive people of the world was to build a new, independent world.

Listening to him, I thought about the Korean revolution which had made great progress, maintaining independence.

The Korean people conducted a vigorous struggle to shape their destiny in an independent way.

Independence symbolizes the great victory of the Korean revolution.

The correctness of the line and policies put forward by the Workers’ Party of Korea has been manifested.

In particular, the principle of independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in defense have been proved very correct.

The Korean people are proud that they have followed the road of independence, in accordance with their convictions and will.

President Kim Il Sung formed the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU) on October 17, 1926.

Following this occasion the Korean revolution entered a new era, in which it was to advance on the principle of independence.

The mission of the Union was, as its name suggested, to overthrow imperialism. Its programme set as its immediate task the defeat of Japanese imperialism, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, and the achievement of the liberation and independence of Korea, and as its final objective the building of socialism and communism in Korea and, further, the destruction of imperialism everywhere and the building of communism throughout the world.

With the formation of the DIU, a vanguard organization of the revolution had appeared, a fighting programme was adopted, and leadership over the masses of the people had been realized.

Korea had historically been a place in which the imperialist powers had vied for supremacy.

In former times, Korea had made a major contribution to human civilization, with its unique culture.

But it had been invaded and plundered and, finally, became a victim to imperialist forces.

To put an end to such a history of disgrace and to make Korea independent, a fierce and bloody struggle had to be waged.

The Korean communists, headed by President Kim Il Sung, advanced bravely along the road of independence chosen by themselves.

The purpose of the anti-Japanese revolutionary stru+ggle was Korea’s liberation and the Korean nation’s independence.

The Korean people have followed the road chosen by themselves, not restricted by the existing theories and formulas.

The industry of the DPR of Korea is an independent national industry.

The establishment of the machine-building industry and the training of the national cadres of the country all started from scratch.

The Korean people would have had less burden if they had chosen the road of relying on others.

But they never abandoned the way chosen by themselves, because they regarded independence as their objective.

The Korean revolution has advanced, overcoming manifold difficulties.

During the revolutionary struggle the Korean people always maintained the principle of independence.

I think independence is a philosophy, which defends the nature of human beings. Independence also enables a man to shape his destiny.

The working people have the strength and wisdom to shape their destiny independently.

They have transformed the nature, and created modern civilization.

However, they did not realize that they had great strength.

President Kim Il Sung authored the Juche idea, and made them realize their greatness.

The Juche idea showed that the human beings are the most powerful beings in the world.

Independence enables the human beings to believe in themselves and play their role in keeping with their nature.

The principle of independence maintained by the DPRK shows that the popular masses can create a world if they are brought to revolutionary awareness.

President Kim Il Sung loved his people dearly and trusted them deeply.

The year 1956 was a difficult year for the DPRK.

In those days the Korean people had to rebuild the economy destroyed during the war. But they lacked in the materials and funds, and their enemies attempted to attack them.

In late December 1956, President Kim Il Sung went to the Kangson Steel Plant and convened a consultative meeting of leading officials and model workers there. After the meeting, he called the workers together and candidly explained to them the prevailing situation in and around the country and the difficulties faced by the country. He told them that the Party had nobody to rely on except the working class and people, and expressed his great trust in and expectation of them.

He also called the entire people to a great advance.

The USA once attempted to test the might of the Korean people.

It threatened the Korean people, by mobilizing huge armed forces. It also used its computer, which was said to have a high analyzing capacity and correctness, to know the strategic intention of the DPRK.

What was the result?

An American expert on the Asian affairs wrote that, although the USA made use of all the information available, the computer failed to know the intention of Premier Kim Il Sung, leader of north Korea.

The result was that the USA, which boasts itself of being the “strongest” in the world, became led by a small country in Asia.

The computer, known as highly developed to estimate the trend of the world politics, could not calculate nor estimate the great strength of the DPRK, in which the Party, the leader and the people are firmly united based on one ideology and will.

President Kim Il Sung said that when all the progressive parties and peoples throughout the world struggled shoulder to shoulder, faithful to and with a firm belief in the cause of independence, they would frustrate all the maneuvers of the reactionaries to reverse the historical tide and bring about a bright future for humanity.

A resounding applause was made.

President Kim Il Sung was indeed a great man who struggled, throughout his life, for the happiness of the people and for the cause of independence of mankind.

Korea, which had once lost its color on the world map, has struggled, holding high the banner of independence.

As a result, it has become a sovereign independent state, strong and dignified.

As the Korean people followed the road of independence, they have been able to build a strong independent national economy, brilliant national culture and self-defensive force.

The DPRK is a country in which there is no taxation. Its people do not worry about education and medical care.

The people in this country are united and help each other.

As the DPRK followed the road of independence, it has been able to establish friendly relations with other countries on an equal footing, helping others and receiving help from others.

As the DPRK has taken the road of independence, it has become a country which has many friends and guests.

History shows that independence only is the correct road that should be taken by nations and countries.

The realities in the north and south of Korea show clearly that the road of independence is the road of achieving national dignity and prosperity, and that the road of dependence is the road of becoming slaves and puppets of others.

South Korea has been turned into a colony of the USA, in politics, the economy, culture and military affairs, owing to the US occupation and the anti-national schemes of the south Korean authorities.

The Government of the DPRK has put forward policies of reunifying Korea independent and peacefully. It also put forward the most reasonable and realistic plans for their realization.

However, the south Korean authorities have made schemes for provoking another war, paying no attention to the desire of the entire nation for reunification.

The problem of Korea’s reunification is the supreme task of the Korean nation.

That’s why, when I met President Kim Il Sung in 1991 and 1993, he told me seriously about Korea’s reunification.

He said that his sole concern was that he had not met the Korean nation’s desire for living happily in the reunified fatherland.

He also said that reunification should be achieved by believing the Korean nation, relying on their strength.

President Kim Il Sung emphasized that the Government of the DPRK held that the country should be reunified by founding a Federal Republic through the establishment of a unified national government on condition that the north and the south recognize and tolerate each other’s ideas and social systems, a government in which the two sides are represented on an equal footing and under which they exercise regional autonomy respectively with equal rights and duties.

It is a long way to go to the DPRK, situated in the eastern end. However, the DPRK receives the heads of state of foreign countries, leaders of foreign parties and governments and numerous others.

It is not because the DPRK has beautiful mountains and fresh air.

It is because the DPRK gives the people of the world conviction in a bright future for mankind.

Indeed, President Kim Il Sung is alive in the minds of the progressive people of the world, indicating the road of independence to them.

President Kim Il Sung surely symbolizes the red flag.

CONTINUED AFFECTION

Zhang Jin-quan

Son of the Chinese Martyr Zhang Wei-hua

Whenever I think about the friendship between China and Korea, I remember the Korean people’s great leader President Kim Il Sung, who helped my father Zhang Wei-hua become a revolutionary and an internationalist, and who took a warm care of my family.

The history of mankind has recorded numerous stories about affection and moral obligation.

However, there has been no story about such a man as President Kim Il Sung who showed a great affection.

I would like to write some stories about the true love, friendly feelings and noble obligation shown by President Kim Il Sung to one of his Chinese comrades-in-arms and to his family.

1. Starting-point of Life

It is important for a man to take a good starting-point in his life.

If he takes a good starting-point in his life, he will be able to lead a true life.

I think my father’s relations with President Kim Il Sung proves it.

My father met President Kim Il Sung for the first time in 1925.

In the spring of that year, President Kim Il Sung came to Fusong, China, together with his parents, who had planned to conduct their revolutionary activities in Fusong where many Koreans lived.

In those days President Kim Il Sung was called Kim Song Ju. He was enrolled in the fifth year class of Fusong Senior Primary School No. 1.

When Kim Song Ju entered the classroom, together with the headmaster, all the pupils paid their attention to him.

The headmaster introduced him to the pupils, saying he had come from Korea.

With a smile on his face, Kim Song Ju introduced himself to the pupils, and requested their assistance.

The headmaster pointed at a vacant seat and told him to take it.

My father sat beside him.

My father was impressed by him. My father said, “My name is Zhang Wei-hua. I am also called Ya-qing. Please take your seat. Let us study together.”

Since then my father began to study together with Kim Song Ju, deepening his friendship with him.

Remembering those days, President Kim Il Sung said as follows:

“It seemed a play of history that Kim Song Ju, an unlucky boy from a ruined country, and Zhang Wei-hua, the son of a millionaire, studied in the same class. It was strange, indeed, that our unprecedented friendship sprouted and blossomed from this anomalous link. However, our friendship did not occur only because we studied together. It also originated from the friendship between my father Kim Hyong Jik and Zhang’s father Zhang Wan-cheng.”

My grandfather Zhang Wan-cheng was one of the richest men in Fusong.

He owned a large ginseng field and shops.

Although my grandfather was a man of great wealth, he advocated national independence and loved his country ardently.

My grandfather sympathized with Kim Hyong Jik, Kim Song Ju’s father, who was experiencing all sorts of hardships in his attempts to liberate the country.

Kim Hyong Jik tried to obtain the approval of the county authorities to reside in Fusong.

The county head did not want the Korean revolutionaries to live in the area under his jurisdiction and so rejected his residence request on the reason that he was a refugee.

At this moment Kim Hyong Jik heard that my grandfather had fallen ill and was looking for an excellent doctor. At the request of a sub-county head,

Kim Hyong Jik treated my grandfather.

During treatment my grandfather was charmed by Kim Hyong Jik’s calligraphy. My grandfather was also a good calligrapher.

This occasioned their friendship. My grandfather was ready to do anything for Kim Hyong Jik.

Kim Hyong Jik requested that my grandfather exercise his influence on the county government to approve his residence request in Fusong. My grandfather went to the county government and persuaded the county head into approving Kim Hyong Jik’s request.

When Kim Hyong Jik was bustling about anxiously to obtain approval from the county authorities to reopen the closed Paeksan School after its reconstruction, my grandfather, together with other influential persons, also helped Kim Hyong Jik achieve this aim, by persuading the county authorities.

The friendly relations between my grandfather and Kim Hyong Jik naturally exerted a great influence on the friendship between my father and Kim Song Ju.

When my grandfather went to Kim Song Ju’s house to see his father or Kim Hyong Jik came to our house to treat my grandfather, my father also went to Kim Song Ju’s house or Kim Song Ju frequented our house to study together.

Whenever my father went to Kim Song Ju’s house, his mother served my father Korean foods. My father greatly enjoyed Korean dishes.

My grandmother cooked Chinese dumplings for Kim Song Ju.

As my father liked Korean food, Kim Song Ju liked dumplings.

My father and Kim Song Ju always spent their time together.

They frequently played tennis in the yard of their school and went swimming on the River Songhua. They also took part in literary entertainment contests.

My father admired Kim Song Ju’s great plan for Korea’s liberation, and Kim Song Ju liked my father who was stouthearted and enthusiastic, although introspective.

They volunteered before anyone else to defend justice without hesitation and never tolerated anybody who was unjust.

A policeman once knocked down a teacher of their school in the presence of his pupils, finding faults with him about a trifling matter.

The pupils became furious with indignation at this surprising incident.

My father and Kim Song Ju made speeches denouncing the police to stir up the pupils. “For the policeman to beat a teacher is an infringe on the school and a serious insult to teachers and pupils. How outrageous it is for a petty policeman in a county town to beat the teacher! As his pupils, we must demand an apology from the police authorities. We must force the scoundrel to come to school, take off his cap and apologize to the teacher.”

The pupils surged to the county government building carrying placards with the inscriptions: “Punish severely the brutal policeman who beat the teacher!” and “Let us defend the rights and interests of the teachers!” and went on a sit-in struggle demanding the punishment of the evil policeman. But the county government would not listen to the just demand of the pupils; it tried to settle the quarrel by coaxing them. The struggle failed.

The pupils resolved to punish that policeman by force. One night they were told that the policeman was going to the theatre. It was a good opportunity to teach him a lesson. But, if they were to escape from the theatre in a short span after beating him, they had to destroy a gas lamp hanging on the ceiling of the stage. Who could blow out this lamp? After debating this matter repeatedly, my father assumed this task. That evening over ten pupils went to the theatre and started their planned action.

When an interval came, my father jumped on stage and destroyed the lamp with a wooden pole. With Kim Song Ju’s shout “Beat him!” the pupils flogged the policeman, until he begged for mercy on his knees and then they vanished.

On the way back home my father said:

“I am satisfied. I have realized for the first time tonight how pleasant it is to punish injustice by force.”

“We must not tolerate such a scoundrel. We cannot live with such people under the same sky,” Kim Song Ju said.

My father paused abruptly and asked him seriously, “Song Ju, which school will you go to after graduating from primary school?”

Kim Song Ju had not expected this question. He had never thought seriously about his future after primary school. So he replied casually.

“Well, I would like to go to middle school, if possible. But I do not think I can afford it. What about you, Wei-hua?”

“I want to attend the normal school in Shenyang which my maternal uncle graduated from. My father, too, advised me to do so. If you do not mind I will take you with me to Shenyang. We can go to the same school there. After finishing normal school we will go to university together.”

“It’s very kind of you to say so. But, is it really possible for me?”

“Why? Because of a school fee? You need not worry about it. I will help you.”

“My parents will not allow me to do so. I myself don’t wish to study all the time.

How can a boy of a ruined nation enjoy the luxury of studying at university?”

“Do you mean that you will join your father in the fight for independence?

When you go to join in the revolution, I will follow you.”

“What about Shenyang? You said you would go to a normal school.”

“Only if we go together, I won’t go to Shenyang without you. I want to be with you all my life. If you go to higher school I will too, and if you become a communist so will I.”

That was the point my father wanted to tell him that night. My father’s words moved him deeply.

Kim Song Ju grasped my father’s hand and said in a whisper, “Thank you, Ya-qing, but do you know what communism is?”

“Of course. It may be what Li Da-zhao or Chen Du-xiu is doing.”

“A communist must be ready to risk imprisonment or his life. Are you ready for that?”

“I am not afraid of such things. I don’t care about prison or death, as long as I am with you.” My father’s unexpected declaration dumbfounded him. He could not guess what had inspired my father to declare like that. But clearly my father’s words that night expressed his ideal and faith, which he had long cherished in his mind.

Remembering those days, President Kim Il Sung wrote as follows in his reminiscences With the Century:

“Zhang Wei-hua tried to make my ideal and faith his own. He did not define his doctrine first and then choose a friend who shared the same doctrine, but made a friend first and then shared his friend’s doctrine. His way of deciding his future was simple and yet profound. Zhang’s such attitude was based on his unqualified trust and friendship with me. Zhang Wei-hua respected me sincerely and followed me.”

My father, since he had met President Kim Il Sung, was fascinated by his outstanding personal qualities and clairvoyance.

My father regarded his life without the President as meaningless.

President Kim Il Sung, in his early years of life, indicated the road to be followed by the revolution and rallied his revolutionary comrades, showing a great man’s qualities.

My father thought that Kim Song Ju was surely a great man, and that he himself was very lucky to be close to a great man.

My father also thought that he would not be afraid of any difficulties as long as he was with President Kim Il Sung, and that both life and death would be a glory.

2. River Flows into the Sea

There are numerous large and small rivers in the world.

All these rivers flow into the seas.

The seas are vast enough to hold all the water from different rivers. The sea can be compared to a mother who embraces her children separated from her for a long time.

President Kim Il Sung’s bosom can be compared to a vast sea of affection and obligation, and my father can be compared to a river which flows into that sea of affection.

My father had never thought about his existence separated from President Kim Il Sung.

Whenever he parted from President Kim Il Sung, he yearned for him. It was only natural that when the President departed for Hwasong Uisuk School, my father wanted in tears to follow him.

President Kim Il Sung’s farewell with my father was unbearable. The thought of their parting depressed my father so much that President Kim Il Sung had to spend two sleepless nights sharing the same bed and persuading my father. They spent one night in President Kim Il Sung’s house and another in my father’s house consoling each other.

When President Kim Il Sung left for Huadian my father came as far as the ferry on the River Songhua to see him off and said farewell in tears.

That day my father asked him, “Song Ju, is the difference in social status as great as the height of Mt. Everest?”

“The difference in social status has nothing to do with this matter. Your father does not permit you to go, because he does not want you to live away from home.”

“If my father restricts me, because of difference in social status, I will become a poor man for the sake of our friendship. Anyhow, Song Ju, remember that I will join you someday, wherever you go and do what you are doing.”

My father kept his resolve. He went to President Kim Il Sung as the latter attended Yuwen Middle School in Jilin. My father went with a pistol stolen from my grandfather, telling none of his family where he was going.

President Kim Il Sung was embarrassed by my father’s unexpected appearance.

“Song Ju, I have left my family at last to come to you. You can see, how determined I am.”

My father took out the pistol.

“I wonder that your father let go of you.”

“He didn’t. He ordered me to go to Shenyang right away but I slipped out of the house.”

“Won’t your parents worry about you?”

“There may be an uproar. But I don’t care. If they don’t find me, one of them will come to Jilin. In all probability, they know that I came to see you.”

My father was right.

Several days after my father arrived, his elder brother Zhang Wei-zhong called at Yuwen Middle School, taking private soldiers with him and asked for whereabouts of my father. Hearing that my father was staying with President

Kim Il Sung, he sank to the ground and said, “Then, he is safe! We thought he had been kidnapped by bandits.”

“Brother Wei-zhong, I will take good care of him. Don’t worry.”

My father’s elder brother told the President that he was relieved, and said that he would leave my father under his care, and returned to Fusong with his private soldiers without taking back the pistol.

Afterwards President Kim Il Sung sent my father to Wujiazi and Guyushu. My father worked as a teacher there for about a year before returning home on President Kim Il Sung’s advice that he should finish a higher school as his parents wished and then continue his revolutionary activity.

Under the influence of President Kim Il Sung, my father joined the Anti-Imperialism Youth League and participated in the sacred struggle against Japanese imperialists, the common enemy of the Chinese and Korean peoples.

In the autumn of 1930, when the President was preparing for the armed struggle in Wujiazi, my father gave him dozens of rifles free of charge, which my father’s private soldiers had used.

Remembering my father, President Kim Il Sung wrote as follows in his reminiscences With the Century:

“You know full well what each of your rifles cost us. Many comrades laid down their lives for a single rifle. However, Zhang Wei-hua gave us 40 rifles, when we had to obtain such rifles at the cost of our lives.”

On April 25, 1932, President Kim Il Sung founded the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army and, in June that year, organized an expedition to south Manchuria in order to expand and strengthen the army and also to develop the anti-Japanese united movement. He decided to drop in at Fusong where my father was living, on his way to south Manchuria. He met my father at a distillery called Dongshaoguo. This distillery was situated on one side of the crossroad in Fusong. The name of this distillery was changed later, but it had been restored to its original name, when it became known that President Kim Il Sung met my father many times there.

President Kim Il Sung and my father exchanged their opinions over the revolution and their future.

My father admired the steady appearance of the guerrillas, and said to President Kim Il Sung, “Song Ju, your men are hale and hearty. You have achieved a great deal. You can now accomplish a great cause.

Marvelous!”

My father’s artless compliment nearly perplexed him.

“Wei-hua, don’t extol me to the skies. We have only started. We are still babies. In giving birth to these babies, the dozens of rifles you gave us produced a great result. You played the role of midwife, by rendering distinguished service to the birth of our army.”

“Don’t praise me too much. I reproach myself for my inability and lethargy. You still trust me, don’t you?”

President Kim Il Sung was surprised at this, and said, “Of course I trust you. I trust you very much. My affection for you will not change, even if the River Songhua may flow backwards.”

My father suddenly grasped his hands and gazed at him eagerly.

“If so, accept me into your unit. I want to take up arms and fight the Japanese. If you don’t agree, I won’t allow you to leave Fusong.”

My father’s point-blank request made him joyful.

“Really, Wei-hua?”

“Yes, of course. Ever since your unit’s arrival in Fusong, I have only thought about this.

My wife agreed....”

My father tried to join the guerrilla army, even by mentioning about my mother’s support to him.

“Then, your father? Will he let you go?”

“It matters little whether he does or not. If I want I can go. As you said on the train, there would be no family without the country. So we must carry out the revolution, regardless of the wishes of our parents. Chen Han-zhang has taken part in the revolution, even though he is a son of a rich man. Therefore, I can work at least among the Chinese national salvation army units.”

My father’s resolve was rather firm.

After a while President Kim Il Sung said to my father:

“It is a good idea for you to join the guerrilla army. But, Wei-hua, the revolution needs more than just one front: armed struggle. I hope you will stay in Fusong and work underground for the revolution.”

“Underground revolutionary work? Do you mean that you cannot admit me into the guerrilla army?”

My father was a little disappointed.

“No, I don’t mean that.

I want you to fight on another front.

The underground revolutionary struggle, to educate the masses and rally them into an organization, is no less important than armed struggle. Unless the fighters on this front rally the masses closely, the armed struggle will not have a strong foundation. Consequently we decided to build up a strong underground revolutionary front in Fusong. I want you to command this front.”

There was a great sincerity in what he said.

My father polished his glasses slowly, dropping his head as if in low spirits.

“So you intend to send me to the second front, which cannot be reached by enemy fire. You think I cannot endure hardships because I have lived in luxury in a rich family?”

“Of course, I must admit that I have considered such a matter. Wei-hua, your physical build is not up to guerrilla warfare, which requires trekking steep mountains. I am frank with you. I do not doubt your mental strength, but 1 worry about your physical condition. So you should help our work as much as you can by running a photo studio or teaching at school rather than undergo hardships in mountains. Your reputation as a rich man’s son is very useful! It can hide your revolutionary activity.”

My father was reluctant to accept his advice.

Therefore, President Kim Il Sung had to persuade my father patiently. In the end, my father accepted his advice.

On the day President Kim Il Sung left Fusong, my father said as he saw him off.

“Frankly speaking, I was determined to join the guerrilla army, because I wanted to be by your side; I had nothing against the underground struggle. My life without Song Ju is like an orchestra without violins. You may not know how much I have yearned for you. Don’t forget me wherever you go.

I have no closer and more precious friend than you, Song Ju. Take care of yourself.”

President Kim Il Sung and my father embraced each other warmly.

My father said farewell in tears.

After parting from President Kim Il Sung, my father spent busy days, while carrying out his new task.

In those days my father yearned for President Kim Il Sung. One day in the winter of 1936, President Kim Il Sung went to the secret camp in Maanshan, where dozens of Children’s Corps members were suffering from illness, shivering with cold.

In those days President Kim Il Sung organized a new division and planned to lead the guerrilla army to the Mt. Paektu area. But he changed his plan, and called on the Children’s Corps members first.

He spent 20yuan, which he had received from his mother, to provide the children with clothes. But cloth worth 20 yuan was not enough to make clothes for all the Children’s Corps members. So he decided to obtain cloth with help from my father, and wrote to him.

Receiving the letter, my father felt a great joy.

After receiving the news about my father, President Kim Il Sung felt a great joy, and could not calm down.

The President proposed as their rendezvous a cave near Miaoling, Fusong County.

The cave was concealed so deep in the folds of nature that nobody could imagine a better place for a secret rendezvous.

When he met President Kim Il Sung, my father cried with joy. President Kim Il Sung also shed tears, holding in his arms my father’s shoulders.

“Song Ju, why have you come so late? Where have you been all these years? Why have you never appeared in Fusong?

You can’t imagine how eagerly I have waited for you.”

This was my father’s first greeting.

“I have also been anxious to see you. I wanted to come to Fusong. I wanted to see you, Wei-hua.”

“You should have written to me, then. I don’t know your address, but you know mine.”

“Wei-hua, forgive me. There was no post office in the guerrilla zones in Jiandao where I lived.”

My father requested President Kim Il Sung to tell him about his past four years. And my father wiped away his tears with the back of his hand while President Kim Il Sung was telling him about all the hardships he had suffered during the past four years.

“Wei-hua, why do you cry all the time? Is there anything wrong with you?”

President Kim Il Sung paused for a while and looked into my father’s face.

My father put on a forced smile, as he dried his tears.

“I cry, because you experienced such a miserable life. The thought of being away from you, while you went through all these hardships, rends my heart.”

President Kim Il Sung held my father’s hands warmly, and said that was not true, and added that my father had always been in his mind, encouraging him.

“Thank you, Song Ju.

The mere fact that you have not forgotten me makes me happy.

From now on I will call you General or Commander as others do.”

When my father suddenly broached the fact that other people addressed him “Commander”, President Kim Il Sung waved his hand in haste.

“Please call me Song Ju, even though others address me commander. I, too, will call you Wei-hua, rather than Mr. Zhang. Song Ju, Wei-hua! How good these sound! Wei-hua, how have you been getting along all this while?”

My father explained to him briefly about the activities of the Young Communist League organization and the movement of anti-Japanese organizations in Fusong.

President Kim Il Sung spoke highly of my father’s success, and gave my father a new assignment to form a Party organization based on the Young Communist League organization.

My father was reluctant to say farewell to President Kim Il Sung.

However, my father thought, “Countless people had been given their assignments from Song Ju, and left him. But their parting from him was not everlasting.

All the fronts and positions, where they had gone, are under Song Ju’s command. Therefore, we are separated from him, only geographically.

As countless rivers all flow into the seas, the revolutionaries, though their positions were different, shared the same feelings with Song Ju, yearning for him.

There is no river which flows up a mountain.

Rivers flow into the seas.”

And my father was determined to return to the President, who symbolized the sea of affection.

3. Eternal Life

People’s lives are limited, because the human bodies are living substances.

Is there an eternal life? If there is, where?

I am going to answer this question.

In 1930, the situation in Manchuria was dangerous, because of the reckless May 30 Uprising broken out by the Leftist opportunists.

Soon after his release from Jilin prison, President Kim Il Sung had to make his efforts to restore the underground revolutionary organizations dispersed by the uprising.

The President’s safety was related to the destiny of the Korean revolution. However, nobody could replace him in the work to restore the dispersed underground revolutionary organizations that had existed in Jilin, Hailong, Harbin, Dunhua and other areas.

My father was much concerned about President Kim Il Sung’s personal safety, and one day, went to Jilin.

When my father arrived in Jilin, the President had just left for the railway station.

My father got on the train to Hailong.

He went through all the carriages to find President Kim Il Sung, and managed to find him in a third-class carriage. My father was much pleased to see President Kim Il Sung who was in safety.

At that time President Kim Il Sung felt lucky to meet my father, because a secret agent was following him from Jilin.

Informed of the situation, my father took him to a first-class carriage.

The secret agent was perplexed, and immediately informed the Japanese consulate in Hailong that General Kim Il Sung was travelling by train to Hailong.

After receiving the information, the Japanese consulate distributed his photographs to the policemen and ordered them to arrest him.

In order to deal with such a situation, my father informed my grandfather, who had planned to visit Hailong for a commercial purpose, of it so that he would also make his efforts to rescue President Kim Il Sung from the danger.

The train arrived at the station. The policemen examined the faces of the passengers, holding the photographs in their hands. At that moment a luxury coach, which my grandfather had sent to the station, was standing in front of the first-class carriage, surrounded by his private soldiers.

President Kim Il Sung, disguised as a Chinese gentleman, got on the coach.

The coach ran off the station.

Although the policemen examined the passengers getting off the first-class carriage, they could not find President Kim Il Sung.

The President was rescued from the dangerous situation.

My father understood well that the President meant the Headquarters of the Korean revolution, and the Headquarters of the Korean revolution precisely meant the President. Therefore, my father even risked his life to ensure the safety of President Kim Il Sung.

In the autumn of 1937, my father was arrested unexpectedly by the military police and imprisoned. The police had been informed by Jong Hak Hae, who was President Kim Il Sung’s classmate in primary school.

In his early days Jong adhered to the revolutionary spirit and then turned his coat, before entering the appeasement squad. The appeasement squad was a synonym for the “submission work corps.”

In those days the Japanese imperialists dispatched many turncoats here and there to find the Headquarters of the Korean revolution.

One day Jong called on my father and said, “I am going to see Kim Il Sung.

Surely you know where he is?”

My father replied with confidence, “I know. A short time ago I met Kim Song Ju.”

As Jong had taken part in the youth movement under the guidance of President Kim Il Sung, my father never suspected him. Jong once worked as chairman of the Fusong county branch organization of the Paeksan Youth League.

A few days later my father was arrested by the police. As my father was used to approaching people in a friendly way, he was too innocent to be vigilant as head of a Party group who shouldered the destiny of underground organizations. My father was arrested, owing to his illusions about people and lack of vigilance. The enemy tortured my father cruelly in order to learn clues of the whereabouts of the Headquarters of the Korean revolution and all the underground organizations in the Fusong area and thereby demolish them.

But my father faced their torture in silence.

He was afraid of revealing the whereabouts of President Kim Il Sung and the network of underground organizations against his will, if the enemy torture intensified. He resolved to kill himself and requested that my grandfather help him

receive parole for a few days. My grandfather asked the police to parole my father on the pretext of illness, by bribing the police with money and gifts.

On granting his parole, the enemy spies watched my father’s house day and night to learn the network of secret organizations.

My father said to my mother, as he faced death.

“I regret and lament that I cannot continue the anti-Japanese struggle together with General Kim Il Sung. I decided to guarantee the safety of my comrades with my death and prove worthy of the trust and friendship of General Kim Il Sung. Don’t grieve too much.”

My father wrote to President Kim Il Sung: “The enemy sent out spies to discover the Headquarters of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army. Please move your Headquarters as quickly as possible.”

My father subsequently committed suicide by swallowing a doze of corrosive sublimate used in film development.

Much time had passed since then.

A visitors’ group from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had come to the old anti-Japanese battlefields in Manchuria in May 1959.

Prior to their departure, President Kim Il Sung met the group and told Pak Yong Sun, the head of the group:

“Comrade Pak, do you remember Zhang Wei-hua, the owner of the Xiongdi Photo Studio, who supplied cloth and money to us when the children were suffering from illness and shivering with cold in the secret camp in Maanshan? Over twenty years have passed since he died, but I have not even sent my regards to his family.

When you drop in at Fusong, remember me to his bereaved family and give my best regards to them on my behalf.”

Pak Yong Sun told him that he would keep his words in mind.

President Kim Il Sung continued, “Zhang Wei-hua was Chinese, but he was virtually Korean or a Korean revolutionary. His distinguished services occupy an honourable place both in the history of the Chinese communist movement and in the annals of the anti-Japanese revolution of our country. Even if his family moved to another place from Fusong, you must discover where they are, with the aid of the Chinese public security organs.”

After the visitors’ group left for China, President Kim Il Sung waited anxiously for news from them.

A few months after leaving the homeland, Pak Yong Sun sent President Kim Il Sung a telegram with the news about his finding my family.

President Kim Il Sung was greatly pleased with the news.

When my mother had met Pak Yong Sun, she expressed many thanks in tears.

As a token of courtesy, she offered a photograph she had kept for several decades and requested that Pak deliver it to President Kim Il Sung. This was the picture, where my father and Comrade Kim Chol Ju, President Kim Il Sung’s brother, posed together.

The picture touched President Kim Il Sung deeply.

He said, “Comrades, this is Zhang Wei-hua, my classmate in Fusong Senior Primary School No. 1.

He was my friend and faithful revolutionary comrade-in arms. ...

Zhang Wei-hua was a great internationalist fighter who understood Korea through us, sympathized with and supported the anti-Japanese struggle of the Korean people through our friendly relations.

He could have lived in luxury by forsaking the revolution; he instead volunteered for the struggle. He dedicated his life to this cause and protected me.

This picture strengthens my yearning for him.

The happier we become, the more we must remember such benefactors as Zhang Wei-hua and other Chinese friends who helped us in our revolutionary cause with their blood.”

Since then my father became known to the Korean people.

In April 1992 we visited the DPRK to congratulate President Kim Il Sung on his 80th birthday.

When we talked to President Kim Il Sung, I said that we planned to set up a new tombstone on the 55th anniversary of my father’s death and requested that he write an epitaph for the tombstone.

President Kim Il Sung was grateful to me for the suggestion.

He said:

“Fifty-fifth anniversary already! I believe that your father passed away in the tenth month by the lunar calendar ....”

I told him that it was the second day of the tenth month of 1937 by the lunar calendar.

He said, “Well, let me erect a monument in my own name rather than write a monumental inscription. What do you think?”

I said in a hurry, “I am afraid that is too much. I should not lay such a burden on you, uncle.

Please draft the epitaph and we will have it inscribed on the tombstone.”

“That may be good. But as the saying goes, all things being equal, choose the better one.

I will prepare an inscribed monument, replete with epitaph and send it by my people. You merely need to be prepared to receive and erect it. What time would suit you?”

“I am awfully grateful. But I am sorry to have burdened you with an additional worry when you are so busy. I feel I have been impertinent to make such a request ....”

We were perplexed.

He said, “It will not take long to prepare a monument. As we have decided to erect it, it would be a good idea to hold the function on the anniversary of your father’s death.”

We accepted his proposal with pleasure.

The workers of the Party History Institute of the Workers’ Party of Korea transported the monument from Pyongyang to Fusong.

A grand unveiling ceremony on my father’s grave was organized in Fusong on October 27.

The revolutionary exploits of the martyr Zhang Wei-hua constitute a bright symbol of the friendship between the Korean and Chinese peoples.

His noble revolutionary spirit and services to the revolution will live on forever in the people’s minds.

Kim Il Sung

October 27, 1992

This is the epitaph President Kim Il Sung wrote for the monument.

Touching the monument gently, I said to myself:

“Father!

President Kim Il Sung prepared a monument for you.

In your lifetime, you always yearned for him.

Please get up, father!”

The monument shows President Kim Il Sung’s great affection for my father.

President Kim Il Sung wrote the epitaph for the monument, recollecting his past days spent with my father, and remembering my father who guaranteed the safety of the Headquarters of the Korean revolution.

The monument also shows what a true human life and an eternal life mean.

Although my father died at an early age, he was given an eternal life by President Kim Il Sung’s comradely affection and obligation.

4. Everlasting Moral Obligation

It is said that the passage of time makes rocks crack, and makes the sun lose its heat gradually.

However, President Kim Il Sung’s affection for us became warmer, as time went by.

He took a loving care of our family.

April 12, 1985 was a very meaningful and historic day for our family.

On that day I arrived in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, together with my sister Zhang Jin-lu and my eldest son Zhang Qi.

President Kim Il Sung invited us to visit Pyongyang.

During our sojourn in Pyongyang, we were provided with a greatest hospitality.

We were told that President Kim Il Sung telephoned an official to take good care of us, when he was informed of our arrival.

We were deeply moved and overcome with emotion.

That night I recalled my mother’s reminiscences.

The day after the visitors’ group from the DPRK arrived in Fusong in 1959, my mother said to me and my sister:

“General Kim Il Sung and your father were on intimate terms like real brothers since the days of primary school. They were so friendly towards each other that all their schoolmates in Fusong envied them. Thanks to the influence and guidance of General Kim Il Sung, your father fought resolutely against the Japanese imperialists. That was why your grandmother used to say that you should call him uncle. The General always keeps your father and our family in mind. Jin-quan, you must write to your uncle, thanking him and wishing him good health.”

On behalf of my family, I sent a long letter to President Kim Il Sung.

President Kim Il Sung was much pleased with my letter, and sent me a reply to my letter, in which he wished that I would become a good man.

I also remembered May 1984 when the President passed through northeast China by train on his way to visit the countries in East Europe.

At that time he said that Zhang Wei-hua’s family was said to be still living in Fusong, and sent us a gift.

On April 14, we had the honor of meeting President Kim Il Sung.

At that time we were very happy to see President Kim Il Sung, who looked healthy and energetic.

And we were overcome with great emotion, with tears in our eyes.

President Kim Il Sung, too, looked much excited.

Remembering the moment, he wrote as follows in his reminiscences With the Century:

“As soon as I caught sight of Zhang Jin-quan and Zhang Jin-lu, leaving the car, I became so excited that I could say nothing for a moment.

Zhang Jin-quan resembled his father, Zhang Jin-lu was the spitting image of her mother and Zhang Qi had all the good points of his grandparents. The close resemblance to their parents must have been a joy for them; it also made me happy. I felt as if the late Zhang Wei-hua and his wife had returned and appeared before me. I gazed at them in a bid to find a resemblance to Zhang Wei-hua in their demeanour. And I held them together in my arms, as I had done when I met Zhang Wei-hua in Miaoling and Daying.”

“I welcome you!”

He greeted us in Chinese.

He told the officials that we were the children of Zhang Wei-hua, his revolutionary comrade-in-arms.

And he told us about his friendship with my father.

We were deeply moved by his words.

He said that he felt as if he met my father again, and added he was very happy.

He posed for a photograph with us.

And he gave a luncheon in our honor.

He did not propose a toast at the luncheon.

He said, “I need not make such a speech, as we are one family members, aren’t we?

Let’s raise our glasses to the health of the people sitting here and friendship between Korea and China.”

He did not offer many glasses to me, as I did not drink much.

Instead, he offered me mild blueberry wine.

The luncheon proceeded in a family atmosphere without any formalities or conventions.

After luncheon we talked a lot in the garden.

We focused on the theme of loyalty.

President Kim Il Sung recalled the loyalty shown by my grandfather and my father to his family, based on his experience in Fusong. He said:

“Your grandfather helped the independence movement of Korea and your father helped the communist movement of Korea.”

We presented him, on behalf of the Fusong people and our family, with a wooden-decorated clock, which bore the inscription, “Two dragons play with a pearl” and a Chinese painting “A long life”, where a child was holding a basket full of peaches at a farmhouse.

I explained that it indicated our wish for his long life and good health.

He gave gold watches, bearing an inscription of his name, to each of us.

He wished that we would spend joyful days during our stay.

President Kim Il Sung met us again at a guest house in Sinuiju, a frontier city of the DPRK.

He gave a luncheon again in our honor on our way back home and talked with us for three hours.

In 1987 I revisited the DPRK, with my wife Wang Feng-Ian, second son Zhang Yao and granddaughter Zhang Meng-meng.

On April 13, we enjoyed the joint performance of artists from different countries, who took part in the April Spring Friendship Art Festival in Ponghwa Art Theatre.

President Kim Il Sung exchanged greetings with us standing at the first row beside the aisle and embraced my granddaughter and lifted her high in the air.

That day President Kim Il Sung wrote his name on the picture of his brother Kim Chol Ju and my father and presented it to me as a souvenir. I said that I would keep it as a family treasure.

In April 1992 we visited the DPRK again to congratulate President Kim Il Sung on his 80th birthday.

It was our third visit to the DPRK.

In memory of my third visit, I presented the President with my long memoir the Traditional Friendship.

The book was about the friendship of our two families.

He praised my writing, saying that, for all its simplicity, every line of my writing was fluent and vibrant with the unsophisticated feelings of friendship.

I said that I was afraid that I might not have described truthfully his benevolence to us.

He presented us with the Chinese edition of his reminiscences With the Century, Volumes 1 and 2.

President Kim Il Sung said earnestly that we should serve as an excellent son and daughter of the nation, serving the people and dedicating all our lives for the people just as my father had done.

My sister Zhang Jin-lu presented him with a dark-red woolen sweater she had herself made.

He accepted her present with gratitude and put it on before us as we wanted and posed for a photograph.

Our family visited the DPRK again in July 1993.

I organized my company composed of the five generations of our family, in order to show our will to hold President Kim Il Sung in high esteem through generations. President Kim Il Sung met us on July 19.

The President was greatly satisfied to meet our large company, and posed for photographs, collectively and with separate families.

He said that my father was one of his comrades-in-arms who helped him in a most difficult period, and an internationalist who made a contribution to the Korean revolution.

A few days went by.

Comrade Kim Jong Il personally took measures so that we could have a check-up in a hospital, famous in the DPRK, and I had my ruined molar teeth replaced by gold false teeth.

President Kim Il Sung told us to go to Mt. Paektu where Comrade Kim Jong Il’s native house is situated.

Comrade Kim Jong Il came to know about it, and provided us with a special plane.

There are many more stories about the affection for my family, shown by President Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong Il.

During his meeting with a delegation composed of the leading officials of Fusong County, President Kim Il Sung told them that he desired to meet them because Zhang Wei-hua’s family was living in Fusong, requesting them to continue to take good care of the family, and gave a luncheon in their honor and posed for a photograph with them.

President Kim Il Sung sent me a gift on my 60th birthday.

He also allowed my son Zhang Yao and my cousin Yue Zhi-yun to study in Pyongyang University of International Affairs. He often visited their lodging house, and showed his warm affection for them.

A vast continent has its boundary, and an ocean has its limits.

But President Kim Il Sung’s affection for my family had no boundary nor limits. His life was not only a life of affection for the Korean people but also a life devoted to the development of the friendship between China and Korea.

His life was also a life of noble moral obligation.

GREAT WISDOM

Vessa Burchett

Wife of Wilfred Burchett, Former Australian Writer-Journalist

In October 1975 I visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the heroic country and the country of Chollima (winged horse that was said in legend to cover a thousand ri in a day), together with my husband Wilfred Burchett, Australian writer-journalist.

In Korea October belongs to autumn when the fruits and grains are fully ripe.

In October 1975 the Korean people celebrated the 30^thanniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

President Kim Il Sung invited us to attend the celebrations.

We were filled with joy.

We came to know later that President Kim Il Sung saw, on several occasions, the list of the participants in the celebrations, made by the officials concerned, and gave his opinions about it.

We landed at Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK.

It was not my first visit to the DPRK.

I am a Bulgarian woman, and graduated from the universities in Sofia and Italy.

From 1947 I started working in the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency.

I was married to Wilfred Burchett that year.

In June 1950 the US launched its war of aggression against the DPRK, which was still in its infancy, and even mobilized the armies of its 15 satellite states.

At that time I was enraged.

The Korean people, led by the brilliant commander President Kim Il Sung, defeated the US imperialists.

I had a desire to visit the DPRK.

In July and October 1952 I visited Korea as a correspondent and, after the war, stayed for four months in Pyongyang, working as a journalist.

I was filled with emotion, because I had an opportunity to visit the DPRK again after about twenty years.

Pyongyang had a new appearance.

New streets were built in it, which had been turned into debris.

We arrived in Pyongyang, four days before the start of the celebrations.

On October 9, we were invited to attend a public meeting held in honor of the 30^th birthday of the WPK.

When President Kim Il Sung was coming onto the platform, all the participants in the meeting welcomed him with enthusiastic applause.

The enthusiastic welcome was an expression of the admiration for the great President Kim Il Sung, felt not only by the Korean people but also by the progressive people of the world.

Such enthusiasm was again manifested in the celebrations held on the 10^th of October, when President Kim Il Sung received warm greetings from delegates and other persons from many countries.

After the celebrations we spent pleasant days, visiting many places and seeing art performances.

During our stay we had a desire to have the honor of meeting President Kim Il Sung. We sincerely wished to receive his valuable teachings.

Each night my husband and I talked about the greatness and noble qualities of President Kim Il Sung, yearning for him.

And to our great happiness, we had the honor of meeting him.

On October 21, President Kim Il Sung called us to a place in a suburb of Pyongyang.

Together with my husband, I went there to meet him.

President Kim Il Sung was waiting for us in the entrance to a building.

We greeted him respectfully.

He shook our hands warmly, and asked us about our health.

He posed for a photograph with us and took us to a room.

He said:

“I am very glad that you have accepted my invitation to visit our country and attend the celebrations for the 30^th anniversary of the foundation of our Party.” He asked us whether we had any inconvenience during our stay.

My husband answered that, thanks to his deep attention to us, we spent joyful days, and said, “When I visited your country in 1969, you requested me to come again together with my wife.

Since then I have visited your country on several occasions, but without my wife. This time I have come together with my wife.”

Looking at me, President Kim Il Sung said he was very pleased that I also came.

He said to my husband, “You have devoted nearly half your life to our Korea. For over 20 years you have done a great deal and rendered great service to our country.”

His appreciation exceeded what my husband had done.

To tell the truth, what my husband had done were the things which any conscientious intellectual could have done.

My husband was born in the State of Victoria in Australia.

He left the secondary school halfway because of his poor family conditions, and studied by himself while working. He went to Europe, when he was 25 years old, and conducted his activities as a journalist.

During the Second World War he served as a war correspondent in the Pacific region and also in Germany.

Immediately after the war, he exposed, for the first time, the atomic bombing on Hiroshima of Japan, carried out by the USA.

During the Korean war, he covered the armistice talks and, in the course of this, exposed the aggressive acts of the USA, and encouraged the Korean people in their just struggle.

Since then he could not return home and lived in exile for 22 years.

While in exile, my husband wrote a lot of books such as Hiroshima, Panmunjom, Hanoi and Again in Korea.

President Kim Il Sung knew well that my husband, throughout his long life in exile, had struggled for justice and peace.

He said to my husband:

“You are a good friend of ours. I deem it an honor to have such a good friend as you.”

He also said he had received the two letters which my husband had sent to him, adding that he had them read aloud at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the WPK. He said that those who had participated in the meeting were moved by my husband’s activities.

Expressing his gratitude to my husband for the letters, he said that my husband had done a lot of work for the DPRK during more than 20 years, and made great achievements.

My husband was greatly moved by his appreciation and thanked him again and again.

After a while President Kim Il Sung informed us of the DPRK’s economic developments.

He said:

“We carried out the Six-Year Plan one year and four months ahead of schedule.”

At that moment, my husband hurriedly took out his notebook and said, “Your Excellency President, if you allow me, I would like to write down what you are telling me. I am a journalist who should work for 24 hours a day.”

We began to write what he was telling us.

He informed us that, by the end of August that year, the major goals of the Six-Year Plan had been reached and the plan fulfilled in terms of gross industrial output value.

He said that, however, two of the major goals had yet to be reached. One was steel production, the other was cement. He said that those two targets had failed to be reached because of the time lost in importing large sophisticated plants from other countries, and added that those two targets would be reached in the first half of the following year.

He also informed us that, during the Six-Year Plan, considerable effort had been channeled into developing light industry.

He added that, during the preceding Seven-Year Plan, his country had been unable to invest heavily in light industry because of its defense development commitments as necessitated by the international tension triggered off by the Caribbean crisis and other events.

He continued that, consequently, his country had increased investment in light industry during the current Six-Year Plan.

Listening to him, we greatly admired him for his great wisdom.

To tell the truth, if the DPR of Korea had paid little attention to its national defense, it would not have been able to deal with such incidents as the “Pueblo” incident and the incident in which the “EC-121” spy-plane, which had been engaged in espionage against the DPRK, was shot down.

The USA surrendered to the DPR of Korea, a small country, which had built a strong national defense.

President Kim Il Sung said that many countries in the world were experiencing a shortage of food, fuel and raw materials, and added that his country had no such difficulties. He said that his country had become self-sufficient in food a long time ago.

He paid a deep attention to the changes in world climate and their effects on agriculture.

In those days the area of the Arctic icecap had increased 12 per cent, thus forming a cold front. That cold front was causing radical changes in weather throughout the world.

The temperature in the northern European countries in the summer of the preceding year, it was said, had risen as high as 56 to 60 degrees, whereas in Moscow it had dropped to 3 degrees, sometimes even to zero, and snow fell in August. The Danube, which had not flooded for centuries, overflowed its banks in the summer of the preceding year, causing damage in many European countries.

He said:

“However, we anticipated the possible effects of the cold front and made provision to deal with them from 1973. This has prevented damage.”

He said it was true that his people did not live in luxury like Europeans, because his country had not yet been reunified. He added that, however, no one walked around in rags and barefoot nor did anyone sleep under a tree in his country.

He also expressed his views on the international situation.

He touched on the impact of the defeat of the USA in Indochina on the Korean situation.

He spoke about the moves of the US with regard to the Korean question in the United Nations.

He also referred to the prospects for Korea’s reunification and to the non-aligned movement.

He talked with us for about one hour and 40 minutes, and took us to a dinner-room.

He said that he would not make a formal speech, because my husband was his old friend, and proposed our good health.

It was really a happy moment.

Looking at us, he said that my husband had done much work for the DPRK, and added that he could not meet my husband during the Korean war, because he had been so busy. He called my husband his comrade-in-arms.

My husband and I were greatly moved by his kind words.

My husband thanked him, saying he had only carried out his international duty.

He said that President Kim Il Sung had led the Korean people to victory in their struggle against US imperialism, and made a great contribution to the cause of the peoples of the third-world countries.

My husband said what he had done was almost negligible, compared to the contributions made by President Kim Il Sung.

The President helped each of us to delicious Korean dishes.

He told us about the construction of the Youth Chemical Plant, which we had visited.

He said that the plant began to be built not long ago.

He told us that the builders of the plant were doing their best to complete the construction as soon as possible, after they had been informed that he would not visit the plant again until it would be constructed and produce chemical fertilizers.

President Kim Il Sung believed in the strength of the people and encouraged them to the struggle to turn the DPR of Korea into a socialist industrial state in a short period of time.

He said that the establishment of an efficient irrigation system played an important role in the development of agriculture.

President Kim Il Sung said that the problem of Korea’s reunification should be solved in a peaceful way, by the Korean people themselves.

The President said that it would be necessary to make the world public support the Korean people’s struggle for reunification.

He hoped that my husband would pay attention to such matters.

He requested us to visit the DPRK again, together with our children, and take a rest.

Before saying farewell to us, he gave us gifts: cloth for men’s suite and Insam liquor to my husband, and a gold watch, with the inscription of his name, and a coverlet to me.

Expressing my deep thanks to him, I told him that I would keep the watch as a most valuable thing.

Almost 30 years have passed since then.

However, I still remember the bright smile on his face.

EVERLASTING MEMORIES

Jyambin Jyamiyan

Former Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Social Security of Mongolia

I am neither a writer nor a journalist.

I was a serviceman, and now I am almost 90 years old.

I now recall many experiences I have had in my life.

In my house I keep three photographs, where President Kim Il Sung, the great leader of the Korean people, and I posed together.

Looking at the photographs, I am now recalling the great grief I felt ten years ago.

Ten years ago the people of the world felt a grief at the sad news that President Kim Il Sung passed away.

The passing away of President Kim Il Sung made the people of the world feel great sorrow.

I was shocked by the sad news.

During the Korean war I worked as the Chairman of the National Commission of Mongolia for Assisting the Korean People.

From 1950 I have made efforts for the promotion of the friendship between the Mongolian people and the Korean people. I have regarded the Juche idea, authored by President Kim Il Sung, as my guiding principle.

I was awarded the title of Labor Hero of Mongolia, and also awarded the 1^st class Order of the National Flag of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Each country has the persons possessed of an outstanding wisdom.

President Kim Il Sung was an outstanding genius.

When President Kim Il Sung passed away, the Mongolian people talked about his patriotism, heroism and great achievements.

I think a leader is a person who brings about epoch-making changes.

President Kim Il Sung was such a leader.

The President authored the Juche idea, an epoch-making idea, and made a great contribution to the cause of independence of mankind.

He conducted the revolutionary struggle for the happiness of the people.

He was indeed a great man who devoted his whole life to the happiness of the people. Therefore, I think, the legend Mt. Paektu Cried, widely known among the people of the DPRK, was created.

In the DPRK Mt. Paektu is called the sacred mountain of the revolution.

A mysterious natural phenomenon occurred on this mountain.

Experiencing the phenomenon, the people created the legend Mt. Paektu Cried, showing their sorrow at having lost President Kim Il Sung.

The phenomenon happened on July 8, 1994, when President Kim Il Sung’s great heart stopped beating.

It was said that, from eight to ten o’clock in the morning of that day, an explosion was heard. And, at the same time, twelve streams of water, mixed with mud, flowed from the mountain.

It was a very strange natural phenomenon.

At 12:00 on July 9, the next day, the Korean people cried bitter tears at the sad news.

And they expressed their feelings about the phenomenon as follows:

“Mt. Paektu knew first that the great leader passed away, and made a great explosion to inform the world of the sad news.

The flow of water, mixed with mud, expressed the grief of Mt. Paektu.”

President Kim Il Sung was the General of Mt. Paektu, where he led the struggle against the Japanese imperialists.

After the liberation of the country, he led the Korean revolution, with the spirit of Mt. Paektu.

Mt. Paektu cried because it lost its master, the General of Mt. Paektu.

Ten years have passed since the world progressive people lost the outstanding leader President Kim Il Sung.

As there is a Korean saying, “In ten years even mountains and rivers will change”, many changes have taken place in the past ten years.

However, no change has been made in my worship for President Kim Il Sung.

I met the President for the last time in 1989 when the 13^thWorld Festival of Youth and Students was held in the DPRK.

I was invited to attend the festival.

The President attended its inaugural ceremony and delivered a speech in which he advanced the mission of the young people in the present era, and set the fighting tasks of the youth and students throughout the world for giving a stronger impetus to the onward movement in the era of independence.

The WFYS, the first of its kind to be held in Asia, with the attendance of youth and student delegations from more than 180 countries in five continents across the world, representatives of over 60 international and regional organizations, and many heads of state and guests of honor, served as an important opportunity to strengthen international solidarity with the Korean people and the unity of the anti-imperialist independent forces.

Looking at the President who was delivering a speech in the inaugural ceremony, I recalled my meeting with him in January 1953.

In those days the Korean people waged the sacred war to destroy the US imperialists.

On June 25, 1950, the US launched its war of aggression against the DPRK.

I visited the DPRK, with the assistance materials sent by the Mongolian people to the Korean people.

The Mongolian people regarded the difficulties suffered by the Korean people as their own difficulties, and sent them many horses and sheep.

We did our best to transport the horses and sheep safely by rail.

Under normal circumstances, only a few days were needed to transport them from Mongolia to the DPR of Korea. But, because of the indiscriminate bombing raids carried out by the US, we had to spend a lot of days until we reached our destination.

The US dropped over 428,700 bombs on Pyongyang City during the three years of war (June 1950-July 1953). This meant over one bomb per head of the citizens.

We managed to arrive in Pyongyang, and were informed that President Kim Il Sung would meet us.

We went to the place where he was.

With a bright smile on his face, the President greeted us, clasping our hands one after another. And he expressed his heartfelt thanks to us for having taken the trouble of making long journey by train.

He looked young, healthy and confident.

Looking at him, I was convinced that the Korean people, under his leadership, would win victory in the war.

The war forced by the US was a severe trial for the Korean people.

During the war the US mobilized the armies of its 15 satellite states.

At that time, the DPRK was still in its infancy and the Korean People’s Army was only two years old.

Such a young state was fighting against the US, which had boasted of being the “strongest” in the world.

The US imperialists boasted that it was only a matter of time before they would gain victory in the war.

Many people of the world believed what they had boasted, and some of the Korean people’s friends worried about the DPRK.

However, the course of the war reversed their views.

The DPRK worked a military miracle of gaining victory after victory.

President Kim Il Sung saw to it that the entire people and all the officers and men of the Korean People’s Army armed themselves firmly with the great revolutionary ideas.

The President’s outstanding strategies and tactics made the enemies suffer defeats, who were superior in numerical strength and technique.

I was convinced that the victory of a war depended upon the greatness of a commander.

The US imperialists, who had escalated armed provocations along the 38^th parallel while accelerating preparations for a war of aggression from the very first day they occupied south Korea, launched an all-out surprise invasion of the northern half of Korea on June 25, 1950, by instigating their south Korean stooges.

President Kim Il Sung convened an Extraordinary Meeting of the Cabinet, and took resolute measures to frustrate the enemy’s invasion and immediately mount a decisive counter-offensive.

In response to his order, the officers and men of the People’s Army beat back the enemy who had invaded the north of Korea, and immediately went over to the counteroffensive on the whole front.

The President set forth outstanding strategies and tactics for victory in the war.

In order to gain victory in a war, there should be not only strong will but also correct strategies and tactics.

President Kim Il Sung had clairvoyance, and put forward outstanding strategies and tactics.

President Kim Il Sung made a bold plan to encircle and destroy a large enemy force in the Taejon area, and personally went to the Front Command Headquarters in Seoul to command this operation.

The combined units of the Korean People’s Army quickly crossed the Kum River, employed a variety of tactics in close cooperation between different arms and services, and thus completely encircled and annihilated the 24^th US Infantry Division which had boasted of being “invincible”, and liberated Taejon, the enemy’s temporary “capital”.

War can be called a confrontation of tactics.

In late September 1951, President Kim Il Sung visited the defenders of Height 1211, braving enemy gunfire, and gave them a very important mission for repulsing the enemy’s attack.

He said he attached great importance to the defense of the height, because success in it would change the situation on all fronts in their favor, and added that they should defend it with their lives, not yielding even an inch.

He made sure that defenses were built with tunnels around Height 1211.

Greatly inspired by his on-the-spot guidance, the heroic defenders of the height displayed a peerless self-sacrificing spirit and mass heroism in the raging battle, braving the thousands of rock-splintering shells that rained down on them constantly and repulsing the constant attacks of the enemy, which broke upon this bulwark like waves on a solid sea cliff.

They made tunnels and other defenses, and thus made the enemy’s attacks ineffective.

The battle to defend Height 1211, which turned the surrounding heights and ravines into “heartbreak ridges” and “deadly traps” for the enemy, demonstrated the advantages of tunnel warfare, the tactics evolved by President Kim Il Sung, as well as the political and ideological superiority of the Korean People’s Army.

I was convinced that the Korean people would win victory in the war, under the leadership of the great Commander.

President Kim Il Sung posed for a photograph with us.

He expressed his thanks to the Party, Government and people of Mongolia for their support to the Korean people.

I was at a loss what to say because we had done what we had to do, as the brothers of the Korean people.

He said that the horses would be used to draw guns and carry ammunition in the front. And he emphasized that it was the same as the Mongolian people sent their volunteers to Korea.

Volunteers meant the fighters from other countries who fought against the enemy, with weapons.

However, he said that the horses were the same as the volunteers, as they would be used to draw the guns and carry ammunition in the fronts.

He continued that the Korean people, with the support and encouragement given by the Mongolian people, were defeating the US imperialists.

President Kim Il Sung continued delivering a speech at the ceremony.

In his speech he said that the young people had the honorable task of building a new world.

He also said that the cause of mankind to build a new independent world would be achieved only through the struggle against the old forces which checked the advance of history.

He said that the youth and students of the world should strengthen international friendship and solidarity in order to carry out their noble mission they assumed before the humanity. He emphasized that the youth and students of the world should firmly unite under the banner of independence, peace and friendship.

The President’s speech gave great encouragement to the youth and students of the world, who were conducting the struggle for world peace.

Listening to his speech, I remembered one thing that happened on June 30, 1988.

On that day I was greatly pleased with the news that President Kim Il Sung would visit Mongolia. That day I had the honor of meeting him.

When I went to the place where he was, I could see the leading officials of the Party and Government of our country.

He received me warmly, with a smile on his face.

I told him that my name was Jyamiyan who had visited the DPRK in 1953, with the assistance materials from the Mongolian people.

He thanked me and embraced me warmly.

He asked me about my health and said he was very pleased to meet me.

He also said that the assistance, offered by the Mongolian people, was very precious to the Korean people, and added that the Korean people would never forget about the assistance.

I told him that I would never forget that day when I met him.

He thanked me and asked me my age.

I answered him that I was 72 years old.

And I told him about my days of meeting him during the Korean war.

I said to him, “I still keep the photograph in which you and I posed together at that time. I would like to show it to you.

I hope you will write your name on it.”

He seemed to be remembering those days, looking at the photograph.

With a smile on his face, he said he would sign it after its enlargement.

He also said he would keep one of the photographs to be enlarged.

After three days I received the photograph signed by him.

That day I wished him long life and good health.

He posed for photographs with the leading officials of the Party and Government of our country and also with me, former Chairman of the Committee of the Veteran Mongolian Revolutionary Fighters.

It was a happy day for me.

Remembering the days when he met us during the Korean war, he said that he was 41 years old in 1953, and added that he met, during the war, his Mongolian comrades on several occasions, among them there was a woman labor hero.

He said that the heroine visited the DPRK together with the Mongolian delegation headed by the 1^st Vice-Prime Minister.

He continued that they had brought horses and sheep to the DPRK. He also said that friendship and solidarity between the two countries would continue.

President Kim Il Sung paid deep attention to the convenience of the members of our delegation during their stay in the DPRK.

During my stay in Pyongyang I was fascinated by Kwangbok Street and Chongchun Street.

In 1989, Kwangbok Street as large as a city had appeared in the six kilometer long area. There have been erected the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace with a total floor space of over 103,000 square meters, the Pyongyang Circus with a floor space of more than 70,000 square meters, large scale hotels, halls and shops. Massive dwelling houses of different types and villa-like houses with gently curved outline have been built for tens of thousands of families.

In Chongchun Street built as a sports village which lies a little way from Kwangbok Street, there are ten gymnasiums plus an open-air stadium, the look of each building alluding to the unique features of different sports.

They impressed me very much because I had witnessed Pyongyang completely destroyed during the Korean war.

Literally only heaps of ashes remained in Pyongyang.

Counting the large number of bombs which they had dropped, the warmongers in the White House boasted that Pyongyang would not be able to rise again, even in 100 years.

Even the Korean people’s foreign friends said that it would be better to build a new capital in another place, rather than to clear away the debris of the destroyed city.

Despite this, the Korean people, under the guidance of President Kim Il Sung, built the heroic city into a beautiful and magnificent, modern city in the short time of ten years, not 100 years.

I was also impressed by many other buildings.

On July 4, I received a glad news that President Kim Il Sung would meet us, though he was busy with state affairs.

It was a greatest happiness for all the members of our delegation.

We went to the place where the President was waiting for us.

With a friendly smile on his face, he shook hands with each of us, and posed for photographs with us.

And he talked with us for a long time.

I still keep the photograph in my house.

We participated in the closing ceremony of the festival.

The closing ceremony was magnificent.

It showed the fighting spirit of the world youth and students advancing under the banner of anti-imperialist solidarity, peace, friendship and unity.

It also showed that the people, youth and students of the DPRK were conducting a vigorous struggle for peace and friendship. The festival helped me realize that the DPRK is a country, highly developed politically, economically and militarily, and that the Korean people are a people with a strong sense of discipline.

Fifteen years have elapsed since then.

But I still clearly remember my meeting with the President. I will never forget the happy moments I had spent with him.

THE PRESIDENT SAVED MY LIFE

A. Rahim

Former Secretary General Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association

“...In my forties, I studied the Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of the great President Kim Il Sung, and realized how a man should lead his life.

Since then I, who had lived, looking after only my own interests, began to live a worthwhile life, a life for society.

In my sixties, thanks to President Kim II Sung, I fully realized how a man’s life should be started and finished.”

This is one part of my diary written on the day when I had the honor of being received again by the great President Kim Il Sung.

In April 1982, I visited Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to congratulate President Kim Il Sung on his 70^th birthday.

During my stay I was invited to attend a joint meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK.

President Kim Il Sung came onto the platform, amid thunderous applause.

The participants in the meeting were filled with great respect for him.

He made a speech at the meeting.

In the speech he warmly welcomed the heads of state of foreign countries and the members of foreign delegations.

At that moment I recalled the affection President Kim Il Sung had shown for me.

He helped me live a worthwhile life.

And he saved my life.

I once suffered from a heart disease.

I used effective medicines available, but my illness became worse.

At that time President Kim Il Sung saw to it that measures were taken to save my life.

An official from the DPRK Embassy to my country called on me and informed me that the President was deeply concerned about my illness.

I was also informed that President Kim Il Sung had seen to it that measures were taken so that I, who was the Secretary General of the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association then, would be able to go to Pyongyang to receive medical treatment.

President Kim Il Sung’s affection for me filled me with great emotion.

I had no close relatives. If I had had close relatives, they would not have been kinder to me than him.

I was confident that I would be recovered from my illness by his warm love, and made preparations for travel to Pyongyang.

I arrived in Pyongyang in July 1977.

I was kindly received by the Korean doctors and nurses at Pyongyang Airport. I was hospitalized in a famous hospital in Pyongyang. Several medical doctors and nurses treated and looked after me.

I was quickly recovered from my illness.

When I was hospitalized, President Kim Il Sung made the officials concerned visit me, and sent me apples, pears, watermelons and other fresh fruits, to give me a good appetite.

I was moved to tears.

Thanks to his love and deep attention, I was soon recovered from my illness, and returned home.

President Kim Il Sung sent me various medicines, after I returned home.

I stopped my recollection for a while and listened to the speech made by President Kim Il Sung.

He said that the foreign guests’ visit to his country would contribute to the promotion of the relations of friendship and cooperation between the Korean people and the people of the world, and added that their visit would also contribute to the strengthening of the unity between the non-aligned nations.

On April 15, I was invited to attend a banquet given by the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the DPRK.

That day marked the 70^th birthday of President Kim Il Sung.

President Kim Il Sung entered the banqueting hall, together with the Party and Government officials.

The participants in the banquet made thunderous applause, congratulating him on his birthday.

He said he regarded it as glorious that numerous foreign friends visited the DPRK to congratulate him on his birthday, and expressed his deep thanks to them.

The President clinked glasses with the heads of state of foreign countries, leaders of foreign parties and governments and numerous others.

He also clinked my glass.

At that moment I said, “Your Excellency President!

You are my great teacher. You saved my life, and showed me the way of leading a worthwhile life.

I will hold you in the greatest esteem, and always follow you.”

After hearing me, he thanked me.

After a while he delivered a speech.

Listening to his speech, I remembered the day when he had clinked my glass for the first time.

I inherited a publishing house, not a large one, from my parents, and lived a rich life.

But as years went by, I realized that the books, published in my publishing house, failed to make a contribution to social progress.

I also realized that the continuous publication of such books would be against my conscience and isolate me from the people. I tried to find a right way.

One day I received “Kim Il Sung Selected Works” from a friend of mine.

Reading the works, I came to know about the Juche idea and the revolutionary history of President Kim Il Sung.

I also came to know about the DPRK, which is independent in politics, self-sufficient in the economy and self-reliant in the defense. And I formed the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association in June 1967, and was elected the Secretary General.

I hung the portrait of President Kim Il Sung in the office of our Association.

I explained the revolutionary history of President Kim Il Sung to the members of our Association and to our people.

I organized various functions for friendship and solidarity with the Korean people.

I had an opportunity to visit the DPRK in 1973.

At that time I was invited to attend the celebrations held in honor of the 25^th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK, as the head of the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association delegation.

I saw wide streets, magnificent modern buildings, parks, etc. in Pyongyang.

What most impressed me was the appearance of the Korean people who were kind and lively.

In the morning of September 9, I had the honor of meeting President Kim Il Sung.

A Korean official, pointing at me, told President Kim Il Sung that I was the Secretary General of the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association.

President Kim Il Sung shook my hands warmly.

That evening I was invited to attend a banquet participated in by President Kim Il Sung.

President Kim Il Sung made a speech at the banquet.

After the speech, he clinked glasses with the heads of state of foreign countries and the heads of foreign delegations.

When he clinked my glass, I wished him good health.

With a friendly smile on his face, President Kim Il Sung thanked me.

The President continued delivering his speech.

…

He said that his greatest pleasure was to enjoy the people’s love for and support to him, and that his most fruitful work was to serve the people.

The President also said that he had a desire to continue to enjoy the love and support of the people.

He said that it was his revolutionary duty to continue to conduct the struggle for the happiness of the people.

He continued that, from the first day when he had embarked on the road of the revolution, he had been living enjoying the love and support of the people.

He added that it was thanks to his comrades and people, who had loved, protected and sincerely helped him, that he could have continued his revolutionary work for 70 years, in good health.

He said that the people gave him encouragement in the difficult periods of the revolutionary struggle.

He added that the people had given him wisdom so that he could lead the revolution and construction to success.

He also said that the people fully supported the lines and policies, which he had put forward in each stage of the revolution and construction, and carried them out, displaying heroism. He said that the people were his protectors and good teachers.

I was greatly moved by his speech.

His speech received tumultuous applause from the participants.

He continued making his speech.

He said that the life of a revolutionary should begin with struggle and end with struggle, and that the revolution should be continued through generations.

I was greatly impressed by his speech, and decided to publish his speech. I was also determined to make every effort to conduct more energetically the activities of solidarity with the DPRK.

President Kim Il Sung was indeed my protector.

He saved my physical life, and helped me lead a worthwhile social life.

I wrote in my diary as follows:

“A great deal of time has passed since the start of the history of mankind.

But there has been no such great man as President Kim Il Sung.

I have no close relatives, but I do not feel lonely.

I am not lonely, because I am in the care of the great President Kim Il Sung.

I want to say that I am a happiest man.

The warm care of President Kim Il Sung makes a man be recovered from his illness and makes an old man lively.

I will repay his warm affection for me.”

(The above piece of writing has been composed by arranging the diaries and memoirs of the late Mr. A. Rahim, former Secretary General of the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association.)

NOBLE OBLIGATION IN THE HISTORY OF FRIENDSHIP

Zhou Wei

Daughter of Zhou Bao-zhong, a Former Chinese Commander of the Anti-Japanese Allied Army

The stories about comradely obligation and friendship between President Kim Il Sung and my father Zhou Bao-zhong have been recorded in the history of the friendship between China and Korea.

In his lifetime, my father frequently told me about the strong ties of friendship formed between the Chinese and Korean communists who had fought together in Jiandao and northern Manchuria. He also said it was his desire to inform the future generations of them.

However, my father failed to meet his desire.

As his sole daughter, I have tried to meet his desire.

But, as I have little experience in literary activity, I have not been successful.

I have visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on several occasions.

During my stay there, I felt an urge to inform our future generations of the historical stories about the friendship between China and Korea, formed in early 20^th century. So I was determined to write of them. I regarded it as my moral obligation.

In my early years, I experienced the greatness of President Kim Il Sung, General Kim Jong Il and Mother Kim Jong Suk, the three generals of Korea.

I also regarded it as a way of meeting the desire of my father who died long ago.

In his lifetime my father often told me as follows:

“Comrade Kim Il Sung was my close friend.

The history of the development of the Anti-Japanese Allied Army and the history of the friendship between China and Korea are unthinkable without his immoral achievements.

Therefore, I insisted on setting up a monument to the Korean communists in northeast China after the anti-Japanese war has been ended.”

My father started his revolutionary struggle, with arms in his hands, at the age of 15.

My father met President Kim Il Sung, for the first time, in early 1930s in eastern Manchuria.

President Kim Il Sung introduced himself to my father, expressing his thanks to my father for his coming.

They exchanged their views on the then situation related to the anti-Japanese war and its prospects, and also on the joint operation of the guerrilla armies of the two countries.

My father thought that President Kim Il Sung’s analysis of the situation was correct and that he had a strong will to win victory in the anti-Japanese war.

My father felt confident that the Japanese would soon be driven out of Manchuria and Korea and that Korea would soon be liberated, as the anti-Japanese war was led by such a great man as Comrade Kim Il Sung.

My father also thought that the Korean revolution and the joint struggle against Japanese imperialism and, in particular, the anti-Japanese armed struggle in northeast China, would be promoted under the influence of Comrade Kim Il Sung.

My father was fascinated by his deep knowledge and warm affection, and formed a close friendship with him, becoming one of his comrades-in-arms in the joint anti-Japanese struggle.

My father told me that the autumn of 1934 was a very difficult period for him.

In those days the anti-Japanese armed struggle in Manchuria was developing, making it possible for an army to be organized through the alliance of the Korea’s anti-Japanese guerrilla army and the Chinese anti-Japanese army units.

The problem, that most troubled my father in those days, was how to deal with the Chinese anti-Japanese army units.

It was a very difficult, but important problem to unite the large and small anti-Japanese army units in Ningan County.

The officers and men of those army units were hostile towards the communists.

They did not fight against the Japanese army in a vigorous manner, though they regarded anti-Japanese national salvation as their aim.

My father was also suffering from a wound he had received from a mortar shell in the Luozigou battle.

He supported himself on a stick, and was assisted by his men.

My father tried to find a solution to the problem.

Finally, he decided to receive assistance from Comrade Kim Il Sung.

My father wrote a letter to him.

When he was waiting anxiously for a reply to his letter, Comrade Kim Il Sung visited him unexpectedly.

My father expressed his deep thanks to Comrade Kim Il Sung for his calling on him.

Comrade Kim Il Sung carefully examined my father’s wound, and applied ointment to it. He also gave my father a stick with a handle.

My father used to say that President Kim Il Sung was his closest friend and comrade who helped him with all his sincerity in the most difficult period.

Comrade Kim Il Sung’s meeting with my father marked the start of the full-scale joint struggle of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army and the guerrilla units led by Chinese communists.

The meeting also strengthened the militant alliance between the Chinese and Korean communists.

My father told me that Comrade Kim II Sung solved the difficult problem of organizing an army by uniting the anti-Japanese army units which failed to fight the Japanese army in a vigorous way.

After meeting Comrade Kim Il Sung, my father formed the 5^th corps of the People’s Revolutionary Army of Northeast China, with the anti-Japanese guerrilla army in Ningan as the main body, and became its commander.

Comrade Kim Il Sung continued to pay a deep attention to my father’s health, sending him tonic and other medicines.

“There are many roads, but one gate.”

My father always quoted this maxim whenever he parted from President Kim Il Sung.

Through the repeated trials and hardships, my father came to have a great admiration for the President.

My father was always confident that he would meet President Kim Il Sung again some time, for they were both fighting against the Japanese, though the theatres of their activities and the courses of their struggle were different.

My father met President Kim Il Sung just before the Khabarovsk conference.

My father’s meeting with the President was a very emotional one, for it was effected after the interval of several years.

My father remembered that he was very pleased at that time to see Comrade Kim Il Sung who was in good health.

My father told me that he had discussed with President Kim Il Sung all problems, both major and minor.

He said he always valued the advice of President Kim Il Sung.

In Khabarovsk my father said, “I have complete trust in you, Comrade Kim Il Sung. In the days of the Anti-Japanese Soldiers Committee, too, you gave the keynote speech each time, didn’t you, Commander Kim? Let us work in the future, as in the past, joining our efforts to meet the new situation.”

My father’s remark showed his great respect for and sincere trust in President Kim Il Sung. Even when my father had some problem to discuss with Soviet people, he first asked President Kim Il Sung’s opinion.

Indeed, the relations between my father and President Kim Il Sung were comradely and fraternal ones based on deep respect and trust.

After the victory in the anti-Japanese revolution, my father had to part from President Kim Il Sung.

However, the friendly contacts and visits between them continued.

In 1946 the situation in our country was very critical. Jiang Jie-shi tried to rule the whole of China and seized 71 per cent of the territory by making use of the then favorable situation in which the Japanese army was disarmed and the area occupied by it was handed over to the Chinese side. He was also plotting to expand his seized area to northeast China, with the backing of the United States.

The revolution in northeast China, started and developed by the Chinese and Korean revolutionaries and peoples, was in a very dangerous state.

At that time my father was fighting against the Kuomintang reactionaries as deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast Democratic Allied Army and commander of the Jilin-Liaoning military district.

In March 1946 he met President Kim Il Sung in Namyang, and discussed with him about the ways of coping with the then military and political situation.

At that time President Kim Il Sung informed my father of a glad news that a train, laden with more than 100,000 rifles and ammunition, would soon arrive in northeast China.

President Kim Il Sung also told my father about the matters of strategic and tactical importance, related to checking the Kuomintang army’s advance into northeast China.

He told my father that he would render him the utmost assistance.

President Kim Il Sung emphasized that the matter of defending northeast China was not only an important factor for the victory of the Chinese revolution but also an international factor for the brilliant victory of the Korean revolution.

In those days my mother was responsible for the liaison between China and Korea, working at an office of the Northeast Army. She visited Korea to receive President Kim Il Sung’s assistance.

President Kim Il Sung met my mother and helped her so that she could do her duty with success.

Since then she visited Korea on a number of occasions.

It was in early 1947 that President Kim Il Sung met my mother in Pyongyang.

On behalf of my father, my mother first thanked President Kim Il Sung for helping them in various ways in the operations to liberate Northeast China.

And she said, “We have to evacuate wounded soldiers, families of soldiers and service personnel numbering over 20,000, as well as strategic materials amounting to 20,000 tons, to a safe place. To this end, we again request passage through Korean territory. We need your help, General Kim.”

President Kim Il Sung readily complied with her request, and saw that relevant measures were taken immediately.

In the summer of 1947 President Kim Il Sung was informed from my mother that the officers and men of the democratic allied army had great difficulty because of a shortage of shoes. He gave an emergency order to all the shoe factories in his country to discontinue the production of other shoes but make only those to be sent to China.

My father recalled that, from the summer of 1946 to 1948, more than 2,000 carriages, laden with the assistance materials, came from the DPRK.

He said the assistance was surely great in view of the then situation in the DPRK, and added that the Chinese people should not forget the international assistance to the liberation war of China given by the Korean people under the guidance of Comrade Kim Il Sung.

Upholding President Kim Il Sung’s lofty will to assist the Chinese revolution, a large number of young Koreans directly took part in the battles to liberate Northeast China.

In the autumn of 1948, immediately after the liberation of Northeast China, our family received a news that President Kim Il Sung took measures so that my father could be recuperated in the DPRK, together with all the members of his family, after he had been informed that my father was in a bad health.

We stayed in President Kim Il Sung’s residence for three months.

In the evenings President Kim Il Sung talked with my parents, recalling their past when they had fought together against the Japanese imperialists.

He was concerned about my parents’ health, and made them hospitalized, and took measures so that we could tour Mt. Kumgang, one of the famous mountains in Korea.

President Kim Il Sung’s affection for my family was added by that of Mother Kim Jong Suk who was known as an anti-Japanese woman General.

Mother Kim Jong Suk took my parents to the largest hospitals in Pyongyang for their treatment.

She was also deeply concerned about my physical sufferings, which I had when I followed my parents, and prepared tonics and Koryo medicines (the traditional medicine of Korea) for me.

She gave me a lot of gifts, one of which was a pencil made from a tree on Mt. Kumgang.

With the pencil in her hand, she taught me how to draw pictures.

She also gave me a collection of Korean songs, and taught me the “Song of General Kim Il Sung”.

She earnestly requested me to study well to make a contribution to the revolution.

She told me to come to Korea again when I have grown up, to study and enjoy camping, and added that she would take a good care of me then.

I would like to write here one more story about the friendly relationship between Mother Kim Jong Suk and my family.

During my stay in the DPRK, I visited Mangyongdae Revolution School, together with Mother Kim Jong Suk and my parents.

Immediately after the liberation of Korea, President Kim Il Sung saw that the school was built to educate the bereaved children of his comrades-in-arms who had died during the anti-Japanese war.

Mother Kim Jong Suk embraced the bereaved children warmly, telling them that she was their mother.

She was surely the benevolent mother of the bereaved children.

Visiting the school, we deeply felt that the school was associated with the affection for the bereaved children, shown by Mother Kim Jong Suk.

My mother said to Mother Kim Jong Suk, “This school can be called the school of affection for the bereaved children of the revolutionaries.

Today we came to know that you have paid deep attention to the bereaved children and showed warm affection for them.

The bereaved children call you their own mother, and I think it will be good if your statue set up in the school.”

After hearing her, Mother Kim Jong Suk said that it would never be acceptable to her.

She continued that she was a soldier of General Kim Il Sung, and added that the bereaved children were General Kim Il Sung’s children who had the duty to hold the General in great esteem as their parents had done.

Mother Kim Jong Suk emphasized that, therefore, General Kim Il Sung’s statue should be erected in the school, and added that the bereaved children, too, would be greatly satisfied.

We were deeply moved by her loyalty to General Kim Il Sung.

Mother Kim Jong Suk was indeed a great woman who valued communist moral obligation.

She devoted her life to the happiness of the people and her comrades.

When we left Korea, she provided my parents with high-quality coats and gave me high-quality clothes, which she herself made according to the style of the uniforms, worn by the members of the anti-Japanese Children’s Corps of Korea.

I want to call her affection for us a great affection shown beyond national boundaries.

I regard myself as a luckiest person, because I grew up in the affection shown by the three Generals of Korea.

I still remember the days in the autumn of 1948, when Comrade Kim Jong Il took a warm care of me.

At that time Comrade Kim Jong Il tried to make me joyful, by helping me with my playing on the swings and showing me various kinds of animals and plants. He also taught me many things.

Happy days went by, and we had to leave the DPRK.

On the day of our departure, I, though young, could not help weeping at the thought that I had to part from Comrade Kim Jong Il, with whom I spent three happy months.

In order to soothe me, Comrade Kim Jong Il requested me to pose for a photograph with him, and said that the photograph would show that I would always be with him.

That day the members of my family posed for a photograph with President Kim Il Sung, Mother Kim Jong Suk and Comrade Kim Jong Il, the three Generals of Korea.

President Kim Il Sung met my father during his visit to our country in December 1954.

Though seriously ill at that time, my father tried to meet President Kim Il Sung. Informed of it, President Kim Il Sung sent many officials to my father on several occasions to request him to stay in bed for his uninterrupted treatment.

One day President Kim Il Sung visited our house.

Upon seeing President Kim Il Sung, my father embraced him with tear-filled eyes.

President Kim Il Sung kindly asked my father about his illness and encouraged him, and said that the letter, which my father had sent to him when Korea had difficulties during the war, gave him a great encouragement.

To tell the truth, during the Korean war, my father could not take his meals in a proper way at the thought that President Kim Il Sung was spending a very hard time.

My father always paid deep attention to the war and decided to send his Korean aide and driver to him.

He said to them, “A fraternal relationship exists between China and Korea. Korea is now suffering from hardships.

Please go to Korea and safeguard the Premier.”

Through them, my father sent a letter to President Kim Il Sung.

Though the letter was not long, it showed the true comradely love of my father who desired the President’s safety.

My father said that President Kim Il Sung suffered great hardships during the war, and added that he felt as if he was fully recovered from his illness after seeing Premier Kim Il Sung who looked healthy.

I was greatly moved by their friendly talk, and understood the affection between revolutionary comrades-in-arms.

President Kim Il Sung talked to my father for a long time, had supper pleasantly and posed for a photograph with us.

Before leaving our house, he took my hands and said that our generation was happier than theirs, requesting me to study well.

I think his remarks implied the meaning that I should be loyal to the revolution as my parents had been, and contribute to the continuous development of the friendship between China and Korea, started by President Kim Il Sung and the revolutionaries of our country.

Since then President Kim Il Sung visited our country several times, and, on each occasion, my father met him in the places where banquets were held.

Such meetings continued until my father died.

In those years President Kim Il Sung presented my father with various gifts.

President Kim Il Sung’s affection for my father was, indeed, a comradely love.

His great love made all the members of my family shed tears.

When my father passed away in February 1964 after a long illness, President Kim Il Sung sent us a telegram of condolence, and made the officials of the DPR of Korea Embassy to our country visit our house to express their condolences.

I was informed later that President Kim Il Sung was unable to do anything on the day when he received the sad news about my father’s death.

I think my father was fortunate enough to enjoy the great affection for him shown by such a great man as President Kim Il Sung.

My wish to visit the DPRK was fulfilled in the summer of 1996.

The first thing I did after I arrived was to visit the Kumsusan Memorial Palace.

“President Kim Il Sung, Zhou Wei has come.

Can’t you open your eyes just once and look at me?” I muttered to myself and shed sorrowful tears.

At that moment I recalled again his affection for my family.

In September 1982 President Kim Il Sung met my mother during his official visit to our country.

At a banquet he asked my mother about the health of our family members.

My mother sincerely wished him long life and good health.

After meeting him, my mother told us that he was a benefactor of our family, and requested us to make a contribution to the promotion of the friendship between China and Korea.

After my mother passed away, officials from the DPRK visited our house.

One of them told us that Comrade Kim Il Sung sent a wreath, expressing his deep condolences on my mother’s death.

He also informed us that Comrade Kim Il Sung requested them to console us.

I was greatly moved, and yearned for the President.

The President was indeed the personification of noble obligations and a great proletarian internationalist who showed invariable warm affection for his comrades-in-arms.

We had a strong desire to meet the President.

But we received the sad news that he passed away.

We visited the DPRK Embassy to our country.

Looking at the portrait of President Kim Il Sung, I regarded my failure to see him as my lifelong regret.

I arranged a memorial service in my family, and told my children about the President’s achievements and great qualities.

Afterwards we visited the DPRK at the invitation of the respected General Kim Jong Il.

During my stay in the DPRK, I presented General Kim Jong Il with a high-pressure oxygen supplier designed for children.

General Kim Jong Il was satisfied, and sent the supplier to the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital. He also gave me a gift.

General Kim Jong Il invited me to attend the memorial service held to commemorate the third anniversary of President Kim Il Sung’s death and the celebrations held to mark the 50^lh anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK.

General Kim Jong Il gave a grand banquet in our honor, and personally took measures so that we could stay in a comfortable condition.

We were told that General Kim Jong Il said that it was his duty to look after President Kim Il Sung’s comrades-in-arms and their children.

General Kim Jong Il’s affection for us is a great affection which is shown also to the peoples living in foreign countries.

During my visits to the DPRK, I also felt General Kim Jong Il’s affection for the Korean people.

I think a good politics makes the people strong and, if the people become strong, they will overcome all hardships.

The DPRK was faced with difficulties caused by the natural disasters that continued for years and also by the imperialists’ schemes to isolate and suppress it.

But the DPRK worked a miracle by successfully launching its artificial satellite Kwangmyongsong No.1.

I am confident that the DPRK will soon emerge as a powerful prosperous nation of the 21^st century.

Under the guidance of General Kim Jong Il, sun of the 21^st century, the DPRK will become a socialist powerful nation, and the friendship between China and Korea, started by President Kim Il Sung, will be developed further through generations.

PRESIDENT KIM IL SUNG IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF AFFECTION

Osorsurengin Cherma

Cook of the Former “Kim Il Sung School” of Mongolia

I have had close friendly relations with the Korean people since 1952.

I visited Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1959, for the first time, and, since then, visited this country on 6 occasions.

I feel grateful to my Korean friends who welcomed me on those occasions.

During my visits to the DPRK, I had the honor of meeting President Kim Il Sung on four occasions and had friendly talk with him.

He posed for photographs with me.

Mongolia, my fatherland, has a long history. It also has a vast territory. However, it is not surrounded by the sea. Therefore, the Mongolians, who had been called brave men, worshipped the sea. I have regarded the sea as mysterious.

I have completed this piece of writing, yearning for President Kim Il Sung.

I have mentioned about the sea, because I want to say that President Kim Il Sung’s affection for me may be compared with the sea, which I had worshipped.

I would like to write about my several meetings with President Kim Il Sung.

I met the President unexpectedly

One day in July 1957, I received a glad news that President Kim Il Sung would visit my country.

Since the autumn of 1952, I had been working as a cook in “Kim Il Sung School” in Mongolia, set up to educate the Korean children, orphaned in the Korean war.

At that time I was spending happy days, together with the orphan boys and girls, who were taking a summer vacation at a camp in a place, a little far away from Ulan Bator, capital of our country.

The orphan boys and girls were very much excited by the news.

They embraced each other, saying they would be able to meet their “father”.

Looking at them, the staff of our school, too, were excited.

We thought that we also would be able to meet President Kim Il Sung.

In those days the Mongolian people had a deep respect for President Kim Il Sung, an ever-victorious brilliant commander who had defeated the US in the Korean war.

I thought to myself, “What kind of a person would President Kim Il Sung be?”

I thought he would look rather stern.

At that time I felt regretful because I was away from Ulan Bator. If I had been there, I would have been able to be on the street, to welcome him.

I tried to calm the orphans down.

“Don’t be excited. You cannot see him, because you are now in the camp.”

But they said, “No, Mother Cherma.

Marshal Kim Il Sung, our father, will visit us.”

And I said to them:

“That’s your own idea.

He is very busy. I do not think he has enough time to meet you.”

However, they denied me, crying.

Looking at them, I also shed tears, because I felt that they were yearning for their parents.

However, the events, which happened later, proved me wrong.

President Kim Il Sung visited our camp, on the next day of his arrival in Mongolia.

When he arrived at the camp, everybody was full of joy.

The orphans welcomed him with cheers.

He embraced them, with a broad smile on his face.

He told them that he called on them because he had thought they were yearning for their parents.

He also said to them that he was their father.

“Father!”

The orphans shouted, with happy smiles on their faces.

He embraced them again.

He was surely a generous man.

Together with the orphans, he looked round the camp. He visited their sleeping rooms, and tasted their meals at the dining-room, and saw their art performance.

Much time passed, and he had to leave.

However, the orphans were reluctant to part from him.

He soothed them, and told them to study well.

The children were still reluctant to part from him.

He embraced them, asking about their requests.

They told him that they wanted to eat the Korean soy sauce.

He told them that he would send it to them.

When he asked them about their other requests, they answered that they had not, with tears in their eyes.

He told them again to study well, in good health.

He shook hands with the staff of our school.

He also shook my hands, saying he was thankful to me for my taking care of the orphans.

From that day I began to think that the orphans could no longer be called orphans. I regarded them as the children of President Kim Il Sung.

I met the President in the DPRK

Three years went by since the President had visited us.

In those years the children grew up to be young people.

And they had to leave for their own fatherland.

I was sad they were leaving.

I had become familiar with the orphans.

In particular, since I met President Kim Il Sung, I became more familiar with them.

I felt as if I could not live without them.

I regarded them as more precious than my own children.

In early June 1959 the orphans made preparations to leave for their country.

When I was helping them with their preparations, an idea flashed into my mind.

I decided to go to the DPRK together with the orphans, and inform President Kim Il Sung that all the orphans had studied well, in good health.

I desired to meet President Kim Il Sung again.

At that time our Government decided to send a government education delegation to the DPRK, and send the orphans together with the delegation.

It was evident to me that I would not be able to be a member of the delegation.

But, to my great surprise, I was informed that I was to visit the DPRK, as a member of the delegation.

I could not believe it.

I learnt later that the Government of the DPRK had requested our Government to send me as a member of the delegation.

As a result, I was able to visit the DPRK.

I felt very happy and was excited.

On June 19, 1959, President Kim Il Sung met us in Pyongyang.

He shook hands with each of us, expressing his gratitude to us for our bringing the orphans to his country.

He shook my hands, too, and thanked me for my looking after the orphans.

He also expressed his thanks to the Government of Mongolia for the education of hundreds of the orphans from the DPRK.

He recalled the days when he had visited the camp to see the orphans. He again expressed his thanks to the staff of the school.

I stood up and told him that it had been our duty to look after the orphans, and added that I felt very grateful to him for his meeting us.

He requested me to sit down, and said that he would not forget the persons who had looked after the orphans, with all their sincerity.

I felt very happy.

He posed for a photograph with me.

I was awarded the 2^nd class Order of the National Flag of the DPRK. I was greatly moved.

I wanted to know how I was invited by the Government of the DPRK, and asked a Korean official about it. Through him, I came to know that President Kim Il Sung had invited me and seen to it that I would be awarded with the order.

Hearing him, I thought that the President was very generous and thoughtful. And I felt his affection for me was an expression of his warm love for the orphans.

He was not only the great leader of the Korean people but also the father of the orphans.

Thanks to his warm love, I, an ordinary woman of Mongolia, was able to visit the DPRK and had such a happy moment.

I met the President again in Mongolia

Much time had passed, and I became very old.

Ulan Bator was in a joyful atmosphere on July 1, 1988, when President Kim II Sung visited our country again.

I was much excited that day.

I desired to meet him, and finally, decided to meet him. I left home together with my daughter.

I approached a Government guest house, where I saw the flag of the DPRK.

But I was not quite sure that President Kim Il Sung would recognize me.

Thirty two years passed since I met the President in Mongolia, and twenty nine years passed since I met him in the DPRK.

I hesitated.

At that moment I recalled President Kim Il Sung who had said, with a broad smile on his face, that he would not forget me.

I thought he might recognize me. I continued to approach the guest house and told the officials there that I came to see President Kim Il Sung.

The officials tried to soothe me, saying, “Grandma, a head of state is a very busy man. You may not know it. We fully understand you. But it is impossible to meet him.”

Though I could understand them, I was reluctant to leave, and told a Korean official about my desire. He heard me, and looked down at his watch. Smiling, he said, “OK” and entered the building.

After some minutes, he returned back and informed me that President Kim Il Sung hoped to meet me and my daughter.

President Kim Il Sung was much pleased to meet us.

He took my hands warmly and said he was very glad to meet me and asked me about my health.

I said, “I have desired to meet you, President.

I wish you good health.”

He thanked me and posed for a photograph with us.

He also said that he always felt grateful to me for my looking after the orphans. He added that the Korean people would never forget me.

I stood up and expressed my deep thanks to him for his meeting me.

My daughter, too, quite excited, expressed her gratitude to him.

We regarded his meeting with us as our glory and happiness.

After President Kim Il Sung left Ulan Bator, I was informed that he had been very busy on the day when he met us.

He had to take part in the ceremony of receiving the gifts presented to him by the head of state of our country. He also had to visit the students’ and children’s palace, and a village, situated in the outskirts of Ulan Bator, and many other places.

He met us, though very busy, taking no rest.

I felt very grateful to him for his generosity and warm affection.

I met the President again in the DPRK

After meeting President Kim Il Sung, I and my daughter desired to visit the DPRK.

In early December 1988, we received a glad news that President Kim Il Sung invited me and my daughter to the DPRK.

We arrived in Pyongyang on December 30.

When we got off the train, a lot of middle-aged men and beautiful women came running towards us, calling me mother. At first I was surprised, but I soon recognized them. They were the orphans educated in our school.

I had an emotional meeting with them.

I called them my sons and daughters.

I asked them how they had known that I would visit their country.

They answered me that President Kim Il Sung had told them to receive me.

I was moved to tears.

I found that Pyongyang had been turned into a very magnificent and beautiful city.

The following day, 1 and my daughter were invited to attend the New Year’s performance of the students and children of Pyongyang City, participated in by President Kim Il Sung.

I enjoyed the performance, and was impressed by the happy children singing and dancing.

I was particularly impressed by the President who applauded the children, with a bright smile on his face.

I deeply felt that President Kim Il Sung was not only the father of the war orphans but also the father of the entire Korean children.

In all the places I had visited during my stay in the DPRK, I was able to experience President Kim Il Sung’s deep affection for the people.

He had shown his warm affection for the children, students, workers and farmers.

During our stay we greeted a new year.

On January 16, 1989, we had the honor of seeing the Korean national opera, The Tale of Chun Hyang, together with President Kim Il Sung.

He received my daughter’s New Year greetings, and said he regarded me as his comrade-in-arms.

He praised our people again for their looking after the war orphans from his country.

He said that the Mongolian people had taken care of the orphans, though they also had difficulties in those days. He added that he was very grateful to them for it.

I was deeply moved by his words.

The President asked me whether I met the orphans I had looked after.

I told him about my emotional meeting with them, and expressed my deep thanks to him for the measures he had personally taken so that I could meet them.

He said that the orphans might be in their forties.

He asked me about my health.

He requested me to visit his country frequently, as the distance between the two countries is not too long.

I was deeply moved, and said:

“Great President, I have a strong desire to visit your country frequently, but I am afraid that I might put you to much trouble.”

He gave me a bright smile and said that my visit would not be any trouble to him. He requested me again to visit his country oftener in future, regarding it as my own country.

And he called me his comrade-in-arms.

I thanked him and sincerely wished him long life and good health.

He thanked me and posed for a photograph with us. And he gave me and my daughter precious gifts.

I was deeply moved when the President called me his comrade-in-arms, and when he gave me a gold ring.

He was indeed a generous and kind man.

I thought he was the personification of affection.

Recently I visited Pyongyang.

I went to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace to visit the late President lying in state and paid my respect to him.

I yearned for his affection.

“Great President! I have come to see you, yearning for your affection.” I muttered to myself.

I will never forget President Kim Il Sung. And I sincerely wish him an eternal life.

LIFELONG DESIRE

C. P. Mairali

Chairman of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung National Memorial Commission of Nepal

It is said that, with the passage of time, people forget many things.

However, as days, months and years go by, my yearning for President Kim Il Sung becomes stronger.

Ten years have passed since the President passed away, and in July this year we commemorate the 10^th anniversary of his passing away.

July this year makes me feel a great regret for his passing away, and makes me have a greater admiration for him.

“The Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung National Memorial Commission” was formed in Nepal on June 8, 1995, commemorating the first anniversary of the passing away of President Kim Il Sung.

The aim of the memorial commission is to inform the Nepalese people and other people of the world of the achievements made by the President.

In accordance with this aim, we have informed the people of the world of the noble qualities of the President, and explained to them about his works.

Each year we institute the period from June 8 to July 8 as the period for remembering the President, and organize various functions.

In particular, through the functions, for example, seminar, photograph exhibition and film show, we inform the people of the achievements made by the President, and promote the friendship with the Korean people.

I visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the second time in September 1999.

I went to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace to visit the late President lying in state and paid my respect to him.

I also visited Panmunjom and many other places.

Panmunjom is situated in the southern part of the DPRK.

In Panmunjom I first saw an inscribed monument, erected after the President passed away.

The inscription reads: “Kim Il Sung

July 7, 1994”.

On July 7, 1994, the last day of his great career, President Kim Il Sung worked without a moment’s respite.

That day he began his work at dawn. Skipping his morning walk, he went over a document on the reunification of the country word by word, and finished it by signing it, “Kim Il Sung July 7, 1994”, the last historic autograph he left behind.

In order to give the Korean nation the pleasure of living in the reunified land, President Kim Il Sung made great efforts in his lifetime.

I recalled September 30, 1991 when I had the honor of meeting President Kim Il Sung.

At that time I visited the DPR of Korea, in order to take part in the International Solidarity March in Support of Korea’s Reunification.

The International Liaison Committee for Korea’s Reunification and Peace held a meeting in February 1991.

It had been decided at the meeting that the worldwide “International Solidarity March in Support of Korea’s Reunification” should be started, in order to support the Korean people in their struggle to achieve the country’s independent and peaceful reunification.

The meeting made an appeal to the governments, political parties and social organizations in many countries of the world, as well as to the international organizations.

In response to the decision and appeal made at the meeting, progressive people of the world took an active part in the movement for supporting the Korean people in their struggle to achieve the country’s reunification.

A ceremony was held in Guyana, in which the march started, and, during seven months after it, marches started in more than 100 countries.

A grand ceremony of starting the march was held in Kathmandu, capital of my country.

Participated in the grand ceremony were the representatives from more than 30 political parties and 28 organizations in 13 Asian countries.

The ceremony was also participated in by a large number of people from all walks of life.

The participants in the ceremony demonstrated, shouting, Korea Is One!, Korea Should Be Reunified by Founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo and Korea Must Be Reunified Independently and Peacefully.

Rising Nepal, one of the major newspapers in my country, reported on the ceremony.

The Korean people’s friends, who had held the ceremonies of starting the marches and other events such as the signature campaign in support of the Korean people’s struggle to reunify the country, gathered in Pyongyang.

On September 29, a grand international solidarity march in support of the Korean people’s struggle for reunification began in Pyongyang.

Among the participants there were young Korean people holding the flags which represented themselves. Other participants in the march held the flags which represented the march.

The streets of Pyongyang were crowded with the citizens who were welcoming the participants in the march.

The citizens were determined to put an end to the national division under the support extended to them by their friends in many countries.

The participants from many countries deeply felt the Korean people’s burning desire for reunification, and marched through the streets, holding the flags and carrying the placards.

The participants in the march held a meeting that day.

While attending the meeting, the participants from many countries felt again the Korean people’s desire for the reunification, and were determined to continue to extend their strong support to the Korean people in their struggle for reunification.

After the meeting, the march continued.

The citizens of Pyongyang warmly welcomed their foreign guests. And they expressed their deep thanks to them for their support.

I thought the problem of Korea’s reunification was a very urgent one.

And I regarded the proposal for reunifying Korea through federation, based on one nation, one state, two systems and two governments, put forward by President Kim Il Sung, as the most reasonable and realistic one for achieving the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea.

The following day, we had the glad news that President Kim Il Sung would meet the participants in the march.

In those days President Kim Il Sung was very busy, giving on-the-spot guidance to the places far away from Pyongyang and meeting with foreign guests, etc.

We went to the Kumsusan Assembly Hall (now it is called the Kumsusan Memorial Palace).

President Kim Il Sung entered a room in the hall, with a smile on his face.

In the name of the participants in the march, we presented him with a flower basket, wishing him long life and good health.

He posed for a photograph with us.

He warmly welcomed us and spoke highly of our activities for Korea’s reunification.

He expressed his heartfelt thanks to us for having taken the trouble of making long journeys.

He said we contributed to Korea’s reunification and added that he felt as if our visit made the weather of Korea become fine.

Listening to him, I recalled his activities conducted to achieve Korea’s reunification.

I had some knowledge about the President’s efforts made to achieve Korea’s reunification, through the publications and also through my contacts with the officials in the DPRK Embassy to Nepal.

From the first day of the Korean nation’s division, caused by foreign forces, the President regarded the problem of achieving the national reunification as the Korean nation’s supreme task and made his every effort to achieve reunification.

He always thought about the reunification.

And he always talked about the reunification.

Whenever he met with his compatriots from abroad and foreign guests, the President mentioned about the reunification.

He mentioned about the problem of reunification during his on-the-spot guidance and in the meetings, which discussed the affairs of state.

The Korean people say that May 3, 1972 was a very important day in the history of the national reunification.

That day President Kim Il Sung met with a representative from south Korea, who came to Pyongyang to participate in the high-level political talks held between the north and south of Korea.

President Kim Il Sung told the representative that, in order to achieve the national reunification, it was important to establish the basic principle which would serve as the basis for the solution of the reunification problem, and explained to him about the three principles for achieving the national reunification, the main contents of which were independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity, which he had been thinking about deeply for a long time.

President Kim Il Sung’s noble virtue of loving the country and the nation and his energetic guidance enabled the three principles for Korea’s reunification to be made public, through the July 4 Joint Statement, as the common reunification programme of the Korean nation.

Based upon the three principles for Korea’s reunification, President Kim Il Sung put forward the proposal of achieving the reunification through federation based on one nation, one state, two systems and two governments.

He also put forward the plan for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo, which embodied the proposal.

The President thought that the decisive guarantee for achieving the national reunification in an independent and peaceful way was the unity in which the entire Korean people unite based on the love for the nation and the spirit of national independence, giving priority to the common interests of the nation and making everything serve the reunification.

And he energetically guided the work to achieve the great unity of the Korean nation.

He tolerated the persons with different ideas and ideals, different political views and beliefs, and even those who had committed crimes against the nation, if they had made their efforts to achieve the national reunification, and led them along the road of the national unity.

The three principles for achieving Korea’s reunification, the 10-point programme of the great unity of the whole Korean nation and the plan for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo are called the three charters for Korea’s reunification.

The three charters for Korea’s reunification are the valuable results of the great efforts made by President Kim Il Sung who had devoted his life to the cause of realizing Korea’s reunification.

President Kim Il Sung also informed us of the DPRK’s economic situation and, in particular, of its agriculture.

After a while we were kindly invited to attend a grand banquet.

When the President entered the banqueting hall, all the participants welcomed him enthusiastically.

Speeches were made at the banquet, by the Chairman of the Korea Peace Committee, and by the Honorary Chairman of the International Liaison Committee for Korea’s Reunification and Peace.

The President said that the problem of the reunification of the country should be discussed jointly by different political parties and groups in the north and the south of Korea. He added that, only then, the country’s reunification would be realized through the united efforts of the whole nation.

He emphasized that it was important to realize an alliance of all the political parties, public bodies, organizations and compatriots of all strata in the north, the south and abroad.

The President’s significant remarks showed his will to unite the entire Korean nation under the banner of the national reunification and realize the reunification of the country through the united efforts of the Korean nation.

His remarks gave us encouragement, and we continued to conduct our activities of solidarity with the Korean people’s struggle for realizing the national reunification.

The participants in the march said that they would continue to conduct the solidarity activities to support Korea’s reunification until the day when Korea would be reunified.

Before the monument, I recalled, with reverence, President Kim Il Sung who had made great efforts to achieve Korea’s reunification, until the moment when his great heart ceased beating.

Though the President passed away before Korea’s reunification has been achieved, which he had strongly desired for in his lifetime, the firm foundations for achieving the reunification, laid by him, serve as a powerful means for achieving the reunification.

One day in November 1996, His Excellency Kim Jong Il visited Panmunjom, and saw the monument.

He said that the great leader devoted all his life to the cause of realizing the country’s reunification and told the officials to uphold his noble intention of loving the country and the nation and work hard to hand over the reunified country to the future generations.

I was convinced that the Korean people, under the guidance of His Excellency Kim Jong Il, would realize the country’s reunification.

THE SOCIALIST CAUSE WILL WITHOUT FAIL BE ACCOMPLISHED

Jack McPhillips

Past President of the Socialist Party of Australia

About ten years ago, the renegades from socialism in the former socialist countries in eastern Europe clamored about the “building of a genuine society”.

They said that they would establish a “humanitarian and democratic society”.

However, the people in those countries, instead of living in a “humanitarian and democratic society”, suffered exploitation and oppression, social inequality, poverty and unhappiness.

In those countries the rich became richer and the poor became poorer, and the working people received ill-treatment and humiliation.

The working people in those countries now say that it would be better if they should not have abandoned socialism.

Experiencing their miserable fate, I think about socialist Korea.

The socialist movement has not been frustrated. The cause of socialism is gaining its victory.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is now gaining victory, preserving socialism of its own style, true to the last instructions of President Kim Il Sung.

Whenever I think about the DPRK, I remember the days when I had the honor of being received by President Kim Il Sung, an outstanding leader of the world communist and socialist movement.

In October 1992 I met President Kim Il Sung and exchanged views on the socialist movement.

During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the cause of socialism encountered a grave challenge. The machinations of the imperialists and the renegades from socialism led to the collapse of socialism and the revival of capitalism in the Soviet Union and the East European countries.

At that time, because of old age, I resigned as President of the Socialist Party of Australia.

I was concerned about the fate of the Party. And I was also concerned about the future of socialism.

But I received the happy news that the Pyongyang Declaration had been adopted and published under the title, Let Us Defend and Advance the Cause of Socialism.

The news much moved me.

The Socialist Party of Australia, too, signed the declaration.

And I received the news that President Kim Il Sung had invited me to visit the DPRK.

After receiving the news, I could not bring myself to sleep with the thought that I would have the honor of being received by President Kim Il Sung.

In accordance with the decision of our Party, I left for the DPRK.

On my way to the DPRK, I visited Nepal and took part in an international conference.

The conference adopted a joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

At the conference I made a speech in support of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

After attending the conference, I continued making journey to reach the DPRK.

I arrived in Pyongyang on October 22.

It was my fourth visit to the DPRK.

I spent joyful days.

On October 26, an official informed me that I would have the honor of being separately received by President Kim Il Sung.

But I could not believe what the official told me.

Whenever I visited the DPRK, I, in company with many other foreigners, met President Kim Il Sung.

When I arrived at the Kumsusan Assembly Hall (now it is called the Kumsusan Memorial Palace), where President Kim Il Sung stayed, guiding the Party and the State work, the President was waiting for me.

I told him I was very happy to have the honor of meeting him.

He embraced me warmly.

With a friendly smile on his face, he told me he knew that I had visited Nepal on my way to his country, to participate in an international conference.

President Kim Il Sung expressed his appreciation for my activities, conducted while participating in the conference, to support the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

He said that, whenever I visited his country, he met me together with other foreigners.

He added it was the first time for him to meet me separately.

He told me he was very glad to meet me again.

He expressed a desire to be more familiar with me and discuss about the matters of common interest.

He said that the imperialists were running amuck to stifle the socialist movement, with their “strategy of peaceful transition”. He told me that the imperialists had sent their spies and stooges to the former Soviet Union and other socialists countries in eastern Europe, with the aim of destroying these countries. He continued that the imperialists were attempting to isolate the DPRK and Cuba. With a smile on his face, he said that his country was strong enough to crush their attempt.

He said that the enemies were trying to destroy the DPRK from within and, on the other hand, blockade it economically.

He told me about the experiences gained in the building of socialism in the DPRK.

He said that the people’s government plus the three revolutions (the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions) would achieve communism.

He also told me that the Workers’ Party of Korea, since its foundation, took the road of independence, adding that his country would already have collapsed if it had followed others.

I told him he was right, because it was proved by the collapse of socialism in a number of countries.

The President informed me of the experiences gained in carrying out the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions in the DPRK.

I wrote down what he was saying.

What he said was easy for me to understand.

He said that many revolutionary parties throughout the world signed the Pyongyang Declaration.

I told him that I had fully supported the leadership of our Party, who had signed the declaration.

He requested me to visit the DPRK frequently in the future.

I expressed my deep thanks to him for his meeting me and talking with me, in a frank way, about the socialist movement.

He thanked me and said that he should have met me separately to have a talk, and added that he had failed to do so, because I had visited the DPRK only on its national holidays.

I told him that my visit was a good opportunity for me in having a detailed knowledge of socialism built in the DPRK.

And I told him that the members of the Socialist Party of Australia had been disappointed at the collapse of socialism in the former Soviet Union and other East European countries.

I said that socialism, built by the Korean people, provided a model that other countries should follow.

I presented him with a gift, and explained to him about it.

He thanked me and accepted it.

President Kim Il Sung took me to a room to join him for a luncheon, requesting me to continue talking while taking the luncheon.

At the luncheon, the President said that he would endeavor, together with me, to make a new start to the socialist movement.

The President called me a veteran politician of the international socialist movement.

I was moved by his remark that I was a veteran politician of the international socialist movement.

He mentioned about the Pyongyang Declaration, and said that the socialist cause would without fail be accomplished.

I told him that, on returning home, I would inform the leadership of our Party of my meeting with him.

He helped me to various foods and told me to come to his country frequently for a vacation for rest and for exchange of views.

At that moment I thought to myself:

“After retirement I worked as an adviser to the Socialist Party, giving my opinions to the articles to be carried on the Guardian, the organ of the Party.

Nevertheless, President Kim Il Sung called me a veteran politician.”

I told him that socialism would emerge victorious in the DPRK, because it was led by him.

Back home, I informed the leadership of our Party of my visit to the DPRK.

I told them:

“President Kim Il Sung is not only an outstanding leader of the working class but also a man with great generosity.

He indicated the ways of developing the international socialist movement.

I am confident that the socialist cause will without fail be accomplished.”

THE SUN IS ALWAYS WITH US PRESIDENT KIM IL SUNG

Romesh Chandra

President of Honour of the World Peace Council

The memory of the several occasions when I had the joy and the honor of being received by President Kim Il Sung will always remain with me.

I recall the support President Kim Il Sung gave to the World Peace Council for which I have had the privilege of working for over five decades, ever since its foundation in 1950.

President Kim Il Sung told me again and again how the fight for peace and national independence, against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism is vital for the building of a new world of happiness and prosperity for all humankind.

During my first meeting with President Kim Il Sung, the Great Leader of the Korean people, he asked me about the Peace Movement’s activities and growth in the different regions and continents. He had a deep knowledge of and sympathy with the people’s aspirations and goals in scores of countries and explained to me in detail how the struggle of each people strengthens the struggles of all other peoples.

The very first international peace conferences, in which I participated in 1952, highlighted the glorious war of the Korean people, led by President Kim Il Sung, against the United States aggression.

At both the Asian Pacific Countries’ Peace Conference in Beijing (October 1952) and at the World People’s Peace Conference in Vienna (December 1952), delegates from all countries spoke forcefully in support of the unparalleled courage of the Korean people.

The delegates to these conferences from Korea told us, in their speeches and in the personal talks which I could have with them, of the great leadership which President Kim Il Sung gave to his people in their war to defend themselves against the onslaught of the US army.

And then, again and again, till victory came in 1953 and in the decades that followed, the name Kim Il Sung was always associated in the minds and hearts of millions of women and men the world over, with the movements for peace and national independence, with all the best causes of humankind, with the determination to reunify the Korean nation.

I learnt more and more about the outstanding contribution which President Kim Il Sung was making towards the building of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the reunification of Korea.

Wherever I went, I called for solidarity with the Korean people’s tireless efforts for peace and reunification.

Division of Korea by US Imperialism and the Korean War

The World Peace Council and the national peace movements, which were its member organizations, understood well that the Korean nation is a homogeneous nation, which had lived, for thousands of years, on the same land, sharing a single language and customs.

The reason for the division of such a nation was brought about totally by outside forces, not by an internal factor of the nation. It was US imperialism which was responsible for the division.

At the end of the Second World War, the Korean problem was discussed at the talks held between the former Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The then US President Roosevelt, at the Teheran talks, held in November 1943, insisted that Korea had to be put under “trust rule”.

After that, at the Yalta talks, held in February 1945, he also insisted upon the need to put Korea under “trust rule” for 20 or 30 years.

The USA, following the defeat of Japan on August 15, 1945, finally confirmed that it would occupy the area of Korea, south of the 38^th parallel. It entered south Korea on September 8, under the pretext of “disarming” the Japanese forces.

Concerning this, the then US President Truman also confessed that the US had proposed to make the 38th parallel as the line dividing Korea.

Although the US agreed to the decision, made at the conference of foreign ministers from three countries (former Soviet Union, the USA and the UK), held in Moscow in December 1945, on the establishment of a unified democratic provisional government in Korea, it deliberately dissolved the former USSR-USA Joint Commission formed to put the decision into practice.

In September 1947, the US illegally brought the Korean issue for discussion in the United Nations and in November that year, at the second General Assembly of the United Nations, used its voting machine to adopt a “plan for reunifying Korea through the UN-supervised north-south general election” and to dispatch the “United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea”.

Pressed by the increasing struggle conducted by the Korean people, in the north and south, to oppose and reject the illegal UN decision, the US forced the Assembly in February 1948, to adopt a “resolution” for establishing a separate government, by holding an election in south Korea alone, under the supervision of the “United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea”.

Despite the strong opposition of the entire Korean people, the US, in May 1948, forced a “separate election” in south Korea and set up the pro-US Syngman Rhee puppet government. The fundamental reason for the division of Korea and the emergence of the issue of Korea’s reunification lie totally in the occupation of south Korea by the US.

The occupation of south Korea by the US and its policy of aggression continues to prevent all moves for peace in the Korean peninsula.

The US imperialists regarded Korea as a foothold to invade Asia. And from the first day of their occupation of south Korea, they pursued a policy of military aggression and colonization, running amok to abolish the system of people’s democracy established in the DPRK, and to dominate the whole of Korea.

The US, with detailed preparations, launched its war of aggression against the DPR of Korea on June 25, 1950.

The war enforced by the US was a severe trial for the Korean people. At that time, the DPRK was still in its infancy, its economic power was not so strong and the Korean People’s Army was only two years old.

The Korean people were full of confidence that, under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung, they would be able to defeat the US imperialists.

The Korean people attacked the US aggressors in the front and in the rear, and finally, on July 27, 1953, won a historic victory in the three-year-long liberation war.

The US had turned Pyongyang and other cities and the countryside into debris, by dropping an average of 18 bombs on each square kilometer.

After the war, the DPR of Korea faced a very difficult situation. There were so many tasks to be undertaken that people did not know how to do all of them, and from where to start.

However, President Kim Il Sung was convinced that a new life could and would be created, as long as there were people, territory, the Party and the Government. And he encouraged the entire people in their great struggle for postwar reconstruction.

The Korean people, who were tempered in the war and firmly united around President Kim Il Sung, conducted a heroic struggle with devotion.

They overcame manifold difficulties, to build factories, cities, making new innovations in production and construction.

As a result, the DPR of Korea became a successful socialist country.

President Kim Il Sung and the Peace Movement

During my unforgettable meeting with him on May 11, 1988, President Kim Il Sung particularly emphasized the problems related to the movement of peace and security in the Asian and Pacific Region.

The popular masses are the masters of everything and decide everything. The people have the power and the capability to defend world peace.

President Kim Il Sung said that those, who were making huge profits through the arms race, were attempting to weaken and destroy the peoples’ movement for world peace. He added that it would be impossible for them to prevent the movement from growing.

Extending my total support to the DPRK’s proposal for turning the Korean peninsula into a non-nuclear, peace zone, I recalled the activities conducted by the World Peace Council.

In those days, many American nuclear weapons were deployed in south Korea, posing a great threat to the peace-loving peoples of the world.

Therefore, the struggle to remove the American nuclear weapons from south Korea took an important place in the struggle to denuclearize the world.

That was why our Council conducted massive peace actions in support of the Korean people’s struggle for their country’s independent and peaceful reunification.

I expressed my sincere gratitude to the President for his proposals concerning the strengthening and development of the world peace movement, and assured him that I would inform the national peace organizations regarding all his valuable views.

President Kim Il Sung told me to come to the DPRK frequently. Some forces in Europe, he said, looked down upon Asia. It is necessary to wage a powerful struggle to prevent the US imperialists and Japanese militarists from carrying out their plans to dominate Asia. We must unite the Asian peoples and establish good relations with all of them.

His frank and friendly words gave me great encouragement.

Peace Conference in Pyongyang

I felt that he was speaking to me, as he would to a member of his family. I told him that I had discussed with the Korean National Committee for Defending Peace about the possibility of holding a peace conference in Pyongyang and that I would be most thankful to him if he would express his opinion about this proposal.

President Kim Il Sung said that if the World Peace Council organized a peace conference in Pyongyang, he would take measures to ensure that all the necessary conditions would be provided. He added that when I would come to Pyongyang to participate in the conference, he would meet me again.

He pointed out that October would be the best month for holding the conference from the point of view of the climate and weather in Korea.

I requested him to honour us by making the key address at the conference.

President Kim Il Sung’s proposal to hold the Pyongyang peace conference in October was gratefully received by the World Peace Council and we worked actively to prepare for the conference.

And as the conference dates came near, I left for the DPRK together with members of the Secretariat of the World Peace Council.

During the day after I had arrived in Pyongyang, I thought of the immense contributions, which the DPRK had made under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung.

The Juche idea, created in Korea, elucidated that man is the most valuable and strongest being and plays a decisive role in developing the world and shaping his own destiny.

The DPR of Korea, in which such a great idea has been successfully embodied, has been rightly called a place of great happiness. Happiness can be enjoyed only when there is peace.

I recalled again my last meeting with President Kim Il Sung. That night, I was involved in the final preparations for the success of the conference. It was agreed to call the conference “The International Conference for the Denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and for Peace in the Asian and Pacific Region”. It was planned that delegates of more than 40 peace movements and organizations from 33 countries in the Asian and Pacific region and other regions of the world, as well as delegates from five international organizations, would participate in the conference.

In the morning of October 17, 1988, we were holding a discussion about the agenda of the conference and about the important documents to be adopted at the conference. In the afternoon of that day, we were told that President Kim Il Sung would receive the organizers of the conference. As we arrived, he shook hands with each of us, saying that he was very happy to meet us and posed for a photograph with us.

He told us that he hoped that the conference would be a great success, and that the holding of the conference was an expression of support to the Korean people in their struggle for the country’s reunification. From May that year, President Kim Il Sung had taken steps to ensure that the conference could be held in Pyongyang successfully.

I told President Kim Il Sung about the proposed programme of the conference, which opened on October 18.

On the day after the opening of the conference, the participants received a letter of congratulations from President Kim Il Sung.

In those days, humanity was entering a new era, on the road to the building of a peaceful and prosperous new world.

Thanks to the energetic struggle of the peace-loving forces of the world, a phase of detente was gradually being opened in international relations, in which confrontation and cold war had existed for a long time. And this enabled the people to hope for a peaceful future.

However, the forces of imperialism, going against the trend of the times when the common prosperity of humankind was being sought, were clinging, as ever, to their policy of force, accelerating the militarization of the economy and an arms race, as well as further intensifying their manoeuvres of aggression and plunder, in order to oppress and exploit the peoples of other countries.

The US, in particular, with a wild ambition to ensure the domination and control of the Asian and Pacific Region, deployed huge nuclear forces in the region, threatening the peoples militarily. And, as a result, the sovereignty of the countries and nations in the region was being violated, and a complicated situation was being created, endangering world peace and security.

The USA, in accordance with its strategy to invade the Asian and Pacific Region, was making schemes to create “two Koreas”, aimed at making south Korea its permanent military base for aggression, introducing nuclear weapons and other modern means of making war into south Korea, frequently conducting large-scale military exercises such as the so-called “Team Spirit” joint military exercises in south Korea and in the area around it.

Owing to the schemes of aggression and war, made by the US, a tense situation was being created in Korea.

The deployment of a huge amount of nuclear weapons in south Korea made it possible for a nuclear war to break out in the Korean peninsula, and if a nuclear war would break out, it would extend to the Asian and Pacific region and other parts of the world, with the resultant deaths of millions of people.

In his letter to the conference, President Kim Il Sung said that, in order to remove the danger of a nuclear war and maintain peace in Korea, the US army and its nuclear weapons must be withdrawn from south Korea, the Korean peninsula denuclearized and the problem of Korea’s reunification solved in a peaceful way.

DPRK’s Peace Proposals

The Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the DPR of Korea, starting from their mission for the destiny of the Korea nation and the cause of world peace, put forward reasonable proposals for removing the tension created on the Korean peninsula and for a peaceful solution of the issue of Korea’s reunification, and made sincere efforts to put the proposals into practice.

President Kim Il Sung made the proposal of founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo, which would be neutral and non-aligned, as a practical method for the solution of the issue of Korea’s reunification, based upon the three principles, the main contents of which were independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity.

The Government of the DPR of Korea put forward a number of proposals for peace: the proposal for the conclusion of a peace agreement between the DPR of Korea and the USA and for the adoption of a non-aggression declaration between the north and south of Korea; the proposal for turning the Korean peninsula into a non-nuclear and peace zone; the proposal for holding multinational talks for disarmament, and the proposal for convening a parliamentary consultative meeting of the north and south of Korea.

However, these just and reasonable proposals could not be put into practice, owing to the schemes of the USA and the separatists.

As long as the domination and interference of the USA continue to exist, the people’s desire for peace, democracy and social change cannot be met.

The USA has no reason or pretext for keeping its large aggressive forces in south Korea.

And, furthermore, it has no reason for bringing nuclear weapons into south Korea, making it a nuclear base threatening the DPRK.

The problem of withdrawing the US army and its nuclear weapons from south Korea and of maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula will be solved successfully, only when the entire Korean people and other peace-loving forces of the world struggle jointly.

President Kim Il Sung said that the struggle to prevent war and ensure peace is a sacred cause for saving mankind from a nuclear catastrophe and for building an independent and peaceful new world; modern imperialism, which is going against the development of history, is the common enemy of the world peoples who wanted peace and independence.

The imperialists’ policy of aggression and war would be frustrated and world peace and security maintained, if the progressive peoples and broad peace-loving forces of the world form strong international bonds and conduct a joint anti-war, anti-nuclear and peace movement in all parts of the world, under the banner of anti-imperialism and independence.

President Kim Il Sung’s letter, in which he said it would be important in the struggle for peace to stop the arms race, achieve disarmament, withdraw the aggressive army and military bases stationed in many countries and to create non-nuclear and peace zones in many regions of the world, was received with great enthusiasm and a positive response by the participants in the conference. President Kim Il Sung’s message was adopted unanimously as an official document of the conference.

The conference, which lasted for four days, ended in full success and gave all delegates new inspiration for the work ahead. Immediately after the end of the conference we received news that President Kim Il Sung would meet us again. We were all delighted at this unexpected news. It would be the second time within one week’s stay in the DPRK that I would have the privilege of meeting him.

President Kim Il Sung congratulated us on the success of the conference.

He also expressed his gratitude to us as the conference had given new encouragement to the Korean people in their struggle for achieving their country’s reunification.

He guided us to a hall to join him for a dinner-party. We took our seats around him.

President Kim Il Sung said he would not make a speech, because he had already indicated what he had wanted to say in his message of congratulations sent to the participants in the conference, adding that the world peoples highly valued peace and that socialism meant peace and peace precisely meant socialism.

I have on many occasions recalled his meaningful remark that socialism meant peace and peace precisely meant socialism.

All humankind desire to live in peace to enjoy an independent and creative life. There is no nation, no people who do not want peace. Peace cannot exist apart from independence.

The Korean peninsula, which covers an area of 220,000 square kilometers situated at a corner of the East, had historically been a place in which the imperialist powers had vied for supremacy.

In former times, Korea had made a major contribution to human civilization, with its unique culture. But it had been invaded and plundered and, finally, became a victim to imperialist forces.

To put an end to such a history of disgrace and to make Korea independent, a fierce and bloody struggle had to be waged.

The Korean communists, headed by President Kim Il Sung, advanced bravely along the road chosen by themselves.

The purpose of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, which had lasted for more than 20 years, was Korea’s liberation and the Korean nation’s independence. They advanced, with courage and without vacillation, along the lines chosen by themselves, conforming to the requirements of the Korean revolution and also to the realities of Korea. The Korean people, under the wise guidance of President Kim Il Sung, defeated the Japanese imperialists and liberated their country. They also defeated the US imperialists in the three-yearlong Korean war.

The Korean people shaped their destiny through their own efforts, establishing the socialist system.

President Kim Il Sung, from the early days of his revolutionary struggle, held high the banner of independence and conducted the arduous revolutionary struggle, making great successes on the road to independence. As a result, the Korean people have become an independent people, enjoying a happy life in the socialist system. They also have become a nation who highly value peace.

As we sat down to dinner, President Kim II Sung helped each of us to delicious Korean dishes. He also expressed his appreciation of the struggle against the schemes of aggression of the US imperialists, carried out in New Zealand and other countries, the representatives of whose peace movements were present, adding that the arrogance of the imperialist powers in many parts of the world, must be humbled.

His remarks gave us still further encouragement. I asked the President for permission to make a short speech, and stood up.

He thanked me and told me to keep seated while I spoke.

I began by expressing my thanks to him, saying that it was a great pleasure and honour for us, that he, despite his many tasks, had arranged to meet us again and had invited us to a dinner-party.

I went on to say that at the closing meeting of the conference, I had told the participants that President Kim Il Sung had been present at the conference on a daily basis.

The simultaneous interpreters might have been puzzled at this remark. But by saying that President Kim Il Sung daily participated in the conference, I meant to emphasize that he had paid deep attention to the conference.

President Kim Il Sung expressed his thanks again and again to me for this statement.

I also told him about various aspects of the conference and the way in which issues, though often complicated, were discussed.

I said I had never been worried about such complications and even differences because I knew that President Kim Il Sung himself had taken measures to ensure that the conference could be held in the DPRK and, on the day before the opening of the conference, he had met all the participants, and sent a very detailed message of congratulations to the participants.

In my speech at the dinner-party, I once again thanked President Kim Il Sung for his precious support for the World Peace Council and for me, personally. I also told him that we would do more effective work for peace, strengthened by the successes achieved at the conference.

Lastly, I proposed a toast to the President’s long life in good health as well as to greater successes in his responsible work.

The representatives from Madagascar, New Zealand, Romania, Nicaragua, Nepal and other countries, who were present at the dinner-party, also expressed their gratitude to President Kim Il Sung, requesting him to visit their respective countries.

President Kim Il Sung accepted their requests, with pleasure, and said that the problem of creating the denuclearized zones had already been proposed by the government of India and by other governments in the Indian Ocean region such as that of Madagascar. He again underlined his view that the World Peace Council was carrying out activities of the highest importance, which corresponded to the wishes of the peoples of the world.

He also invited us all to visit Pyongyang frequently, not only to hold an international conference, but also for a vacation for rest, choosing the best season for our visits.

At the dinner-party, which was held in an amiable atmosphere, the delegate from Madagascar told President Kim Il Sung about his impressions about the May Day Stadium and the Gwangbok Street, adding that he had thought that, if we had been about 20 years old, we would be able to take part in the 13^th World Festival of Youth and Students, to be held in Pyongyang the next year.

After hearing him, President Kim Il Sung told us that he would invite us all irrespective of our ages, to the festival as guests.

Anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea

I visited the DPRK again in October 1990 to participate in the celebrations on the occasion of the 45^th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

On that occasion, too, I had the honour of meeting President Kim Il Sung and was photographed with him.

On October 10, the foundation day of the Workers’ Party of Korea, I took part in a grand banquet, participated in by President Kim Il Sung.

Present at the banquet were 276 delegations and other representatives from 126 countries, including renowned social activists and other guests from across the world.

At the banquet, President Kim Il Sung delivered a speech, the main content of which was that strengthening the Party and raising its leading role would constitute the main guarantee for achieving victory in the revolution.

In his speech, President Kim Il Sung emphasized that, in spite of conspiracies of all kinds, made by the imperialists and reactionaries, the world was advancing, as ever, along the road of independence.

He continued that the peoples’ desire to live in a free and peaceful new world would be met, without fail, although there were turns and twists on the road to progress.

Today the DPRK holds its own in the world, existing together with other countries, showing its dignity as an independent sovereign state.

That is why today, it has become a country which has many friends and many guests. Every day, Korea receives the heads of state of foreign countries, leaders of foreign parties and governments, famous social activists and numerous others.

The DPRK gives to those who visit it, confidence in the peaceful future of humankind, in the building of a new and different world in which peace and national independence shall prevail.

90th Birth Anniversary of President Kim Il Sung

When I was invited to attend the President’s 90^th birth anniversary in Pyongyang, I was filled with great emotion.

I would be able to visit the DPRK again but I would not be able to hear again the kindly voice and see the friendly visage of one who meant so much in my life and in the lives of so many others.

The passing away of President Kim Il Sung on July 8, 1994 was so sudden and unexpected that it seemed impossible to believe that the creator of the Juche idea and defender of world peace and national independence, the great leader of the Korean people was no more.

But as I took part in the various events to honour his memory, I understood more and more why the Korean people will always call President Kim Il Sung the great sun of all the peoples; under the rays of the sun, they say the era of independence continues on the globe, and the number of the independent and peace-loving people continues to increase; the sun removes the darkness and brings about daylight, growing and protecting everything.

The Korean people consider that, as the natural world exists thanks to the sun, there exists the present and the future of the peace-loving peoples of the world thanks above all to President Kim Il Sung, who saved and protected the Korean people, who had been oppressed throughout their history, by creating the Juche idea, which shines as brilliantly as the light of the sun, and by turning their dreams of happiness into reality, with his life, which was as warm as the sun.

It is said that the passage of time wipes out our memories.

However, the people feel greater yearning for President Kim Il Sung as days and years go by.

July 8 this year marks the tenth anniversary of his passing away.

And his memory remains stronger than ever, the feeling of admiration for him grows ever deeper.

Eternal Sun of Mankind

Association for Friendship and Cooperation with Foreign Countries

Licence from the Publication Committee of the Russian Federation

N071576, 30. 12. 1997. Komsomolski Ave. 13, Moscow