Promises With The People

"From the olden times great men have valued their promises.

But there is no one, like President Kim Il Sung, who regards the promise as the virtue of a great man and the condition of a true man.

I felt deeply at this visit that the promises made by President Kim Il Sung are not the same as the one that other leaders normally make with their people.

President Kim Il Sung makes promise with workers, peasants, scientists, soldiers and even children as their benevolent father.

In a word, his promise is the one that people of blood relation such as fathers and sons, fathers and daughters make. I would like to say with confidence that the foundation of the Korean people's trust in President Kim Il Sung lies in such outstanding traits."

This is a paragraph of the book "The Great Man" written in praise of President Kim Il Sung by a social activist in Africa who visited Korea.

Indeed, President Kim Il Sung made a lot of promises with the people on his field guidance as a leader of the people and as a benevolent father of the people.

Chairman Kim Jong Il said:

"Our leader Kim Il Sung is the preeminent revolutionary leader in history, as well as the benevolent father of our people."

Among the promises made by President Kim Il Sung with the people are a promise that he would visit again on a spring day after visiting Saenal agricultural cooperative, a promise with Changsong Art Group members that he would visit Changsong again and a promise with ordinary students in the mountain county who met for a moment on the road of his field guidance that he would definitely send the photos he had taken with them, and a promise with an ordinary shop salesgirl who had a good experience discussion at the forum of the Central Committee of the Party that he would visit her shop without fail.

Reading people's mind, the fatherly leader made promises of warm love with them, and had never forgotten even for a moment or broken them.

When he visited a farm on a spring day, he said that he would come again in autumn and he would go to the farm without fail to share the joy of the rich harvest with the farmers. If he promised to send tractors to a youth sub-workteam member, he instructed the officials concerned to send them and felt relieved only after he received a report that the tractors arrived at the youth sub-workteam.

Among the many promises made by the President with the people is an episode of warm love he tried to keep his promise with the students of the Nampho Revolutionary School.

When the President visited Mangyongdae Revolutionary School on December 14, Juche 47 (1958), 50 students in different school uniform ran to him.

They were the students of the Nampho Revolutionary School who were on the way back to Nampho after visiting Mangyongdae. They knew that the President came here in Mangyongdae Revolutionary school and rushed to meet him.

President Kim Il Sung had a photo session with them whose parents were killed during the Fatherland Liberation War, taking into consideration their desire for warm love and affection and watched art performances of the students of Mangyongdae Revolutionary School and had meals with them.

Before leaving Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, unwilling to part with them, he asked the students of the Nampho Revolutionary School if they had anything to ask for.

At that time, a schoolgirl grabbed his wrist and said earnestly that she wanted the President to visit her revolutionary school in Nampho.

Then, all the others said in unison, "Let's go, the respected Comrade Kim Il Sung."

After looking round the students for a while, the President made a promise of love to all the teaching staff and students of the Nampho Revolutionary School that he would visit once since they were looking forward to seeing him.

A week later on December 21, the President visited the school to keep his promise with the students of the Nampho Revolutionary School.

In fact, those days before the President visited Nampho Revolutionary School he was very busy looking after the overall work of the Party and the state. He opened two important conferences, one consultative meeting and gave on the field guidance to three units.

On the day he visited Nampho Revolutionary School, the President had left Pyongyang early in the morning to visit a construction site in Ryonggang County and visited the reconstruction site in Nampho Port and the construction site of dwelling houses in Nampho City without a moment's rest.

When the President suggested going to the Nampho Revolutionary School, an official told him that he had better visit the school the other day since it was nearly lunchtime and he had rather tight schedule in the afternoon.

But the President said that he had made a promise with the children and that he should keep it, even though he had to put off other things.

Like this, the President valued the promise he had made with ordinary students, and visited them on Sunday in spite of tight schedule.

That day the President visited the school, looked round the students' bedrooms and medical room first, looking after the students' lives, and met all the students of the school in the hall. He stayed at the school for three hours, even postponing lunch time, and gave warm love and affection to the children of the school.

It is indeed a human virtue to value the promise, but the President was the tender-hearted father of the people who kindly received the request of the young students whom he met for a moment on the road of field guidance and kept his promise with them.