Waiting in a yard early in the morning

President Kim Il Sung said:

"‘The people are my God' has been my constant view and motto."

With "The people are my God" as a motto all his life, President Kim Il Sung loved the people most and devoted his all to their wellbeing.

The following is a story about his devotion to the people.

In May Juche 41(1952), during the days of the fierce Fatherland Liberation War, Kim Il Sung gave on-spot guidance in the then Wonhwa-ri, Tongam Sub-county, Taedong County, South Phyongan Province.

The village had about 70 families, whose members had been all sharecroppers during the period of the Japanese military occupation. After the liberation of the country, the agrarian reform quite improved their livelihood. With the outbreak of the war, however, most of the men in the village went away to join the army and, to make matters worse, the enemy's brutal massacre and plunder during the strategic, temporary retreat left the village in very poor conditions for farming.

President Kim Il Sung arrived at the village at dawn with twinkling stars in the sky.

In order to find a room for him, an accompanying official went to the house of the chairwoman of the local committee of the Women's Union.

When official was about to enter the yard, President Kim Il Sung told him not to wake the owner as they might disturb her slumber and said that they had better take a rest in the yard until she got up as the day would soon break.

The official felt very sorry and was at a loss.

President Kim Il Sung said to him that he would be all right and that it would be better to take in fresh morning air in the yard. Then he told the official to bring sheaves of straws.

He sat on a sheaf near there and told the officials to sit next to him. A chilly breeze of dawn blew over the low fence of kaolian stalks into the yard where Kim Il Sung was waiting for daybreak, sitting on a sheaf of straws wet with cold dewdrops.

At last, the darkness faded away, and the chairwoman of the local committee of the Women's Union came out of her house. She was stepping out in the yard, rubbing her eyes out of sleepiness, when she recognized Kim Il Sung and was too surprised to say a greeting.

So embarrassed, she belatedly invited him in.

However, Kim Il Sung asked her to have a talk in the field, saying that the outside was better, and walked towards the Wonhwa plain of dry-field rice.

In the field he personally sowed seeds with the farmers and taught the officials in detail how to spread compost holding a straw basket in his hand.

Then, looking round the Wonhwa plain, he expounded his views on the bright future of Wonhwa-ri, including making the dry fields into paddies, irrigating the rest of the dry fields, planting fruit trees and mulberry trees in the surrounding hillocks, building modern houses and introducing electricity.

The local people shed tears of grateful thanks to the President who loved the people so much, shared sweets and bitters with them and devoted his all to their happiness.

No other leader in the world would wait in the yard despite the chilly dewdrops lest he should disturb the people's sound sleep.

This is a legend of loving care for the people, which is to be found nowhere in the world history and which could be created by none other than President Kim Il Sung who regarded "The people are my God" as his lifetime motto.