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!

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^th anniversary 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^th World 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.