Allowing No Bit of Privilege

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said:

"Even though he was held in high respect and admiration by our people and progressive people around the world, President Kim Il Sung rejected any special favour or privilege for himself, and always led a simple and frugal life with his people."

President Kim Il Sung never allowed any kind of privilege or special benefits for himself all his life. And he used to tell his relatives to live a modest and frugal life all the time.

It was in Juche 47(1958).

That year, some officials built a new house for the great leader's uncle in Mangyongdae.

Although, in rural villages across the country, thatched houses had already been removed and the new modern dwellings were being built up, his uncle's family members with his grandmother Ri Po Ik of an old age were still living in the outdated floored house, which is why the officials held a discussion and built a new 3-roomed house with a semi-basement to be used as an open shed, not far away from the original lot.

At that time, the modest relatives persistently dissuaded them, but they thought it was their due obligation, moving and building the new house.

Some days after the house was built, President Kim Il Sung visited Mangyongdae.

When he saw the new house, he immediately summoned the officials to ask them what it was for and under whose instructions they had built it.

They could not reply for a while, but finally told him the whole story of how they moved and built the new house honestly.

Then, President Kim Il Sung severely scolded asking what was so inconvenient in the original house to do such work wasting materials and labor and if it was right to do so while people were still suffering from the shortage of houses.

His voice, admonishing the officials, resounded with unprecedentedly solemn gravity.

After a while, President Kim Il Sung prudently said we should not waste the properties of the country and people for personal affairs of an individual and his family couldn't be exceptional, and sternly admonished that their deed was of no help for himself.

And, he told them to demolish the house and use the building materials for other purposes.

The officials could not but swallowed tears and bowed before the noble personality of the great leader, who strictly treated his own relatives who suffered from the greatest trials and heartbreaking misfortunes with the harsh history of Korean revolution, like this, although he always cared for the workers, peasants, old revolutionaries and their bereaved families with a strong paternal affection and granted unsparing benefits so that the government took charge of and guaranteed their living.

Love for one's own family and blood relations is a human emotion common to everyone.

Why would not his love for his grandparents and kinsmen be warm? He was, indeed, the one who would feel the most heartbreaking and painful to think of the misery and troubles his blood relations had suffered from during the period of anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.

However, President Kim Il Sung considered any little bit of privilege for his own blood relations to ‘illegal' before the country and set a noble example of frugal and honest life.

President Kim Il Sung was unparalleled by any great men or leaders in the world considering all the aspects including his ideology, leading authority and his great exploits. But, he always lived a modest and simple life together with our people, never allowing any kind of special favor or benefits for himself.

Indeed, our President Kim Il Sung was the greatest man who lived his whole life with the highest level of modesty to be endowed with by humans. The infinite modesty of the great leader was the genuine example of the most noble and lofty personality that had never been experienced by the humanity.