Great Trust in a Miller

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said:

"In his long revolutionary career Comrade Kim Il Sung took responsibility for the destiny and future of anyone with whom he had come into comradely relations, and protected them to the last, holding all the revolutionary soldiers in his embrace and bestowing great trust and love on them."

The sacred revolutionary career of President Kim Il Sung spanning more than 80 years is associated with innumerable touching stories about the lives of all the revolutionary soldiers on this land whom he glorified with his boundlessly noble trust and obligation, standing them on the hill of immortality.

Among the people who regained their lost lives to live their eternal lives under the care of the great man is Ri Si Ryul, the miller of Jia Zai Shui, Changbai county, who had once been stigmatized by some narrow-minded people but could be inscribed in the memory of people today as an anti-Japanese patriotic martyr.

On August 26, Juche 64 (1975), when the whole country was seething with the struggle to glorify the 30th founding anniversary of the glorious Workers' Party of Korea as a grand festival of victors, President Kim Il Sung, who was busy dealing with the issues raised in different fields, got a surprising report from an official.

It was about Ri Si Ryul, the miller of Jia Zai Shui, Changbai County, who had fought as a member of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland during the anti-Japanese armed struggle.

At the news of the miller of Jia Zai Shui who impressed him in the days of anti-Japanese war, 30 years after the liberation of the country, he was really pleased.

Though he had never seen him, even in the photographs, the Changbai miller was engraved in his memory as unforgettable people, as a person who had taken part in the Arduous March with rice on his back.

That day, listening to the official's report in utmost pleasure, he gradually turned dark. It was an unexpected one that the unforgettable miller of Jia Zai Shui, who he had been so anxious to find for decades, proved to be a reactionary.

He took the document of details about Ri Si Ryul without saying anything, as he could never believe it.

The document covered detailed facts and data telling why the Jia Zai Shui miller had been branded as a reactionary after the war and punished by the judicial organ.

It was cited that before liberation he had framed a plot to ambush the Japanese army and police to arrest the guerrillas when they came to carry rice at his notice, that he belonged to the exploiting class as he had driven the mill to sweat the peasants; that after the war he deliberately killed several boxes of honey bees while taking care of the bees of the cooperative.

Learning about the contents of the data, he did not speak for a while, his face clouded as he was too stunned.

Looking at the official with a stern expression of anxiety, he said that the miller used to hide the rice he had gained at the price of his labor and send it to us, not once, but dozens of times, and once knowing that the guerrilla army were operating in the vicinity, the miller and villagers purchased a large amount of food, pork, etc. and noticed us, so that several guerrillas, instead of two as before, had to go to bring them.

He went on to say in a painful voice that a guerrilla of Kilju origin defected to the enemy so that they could destroy the Jia Zai Shui branch organization of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, arresting, imprisoning and killing a large number of people.

President Kim Il Sung, who was born with absolute trust in and obligation to the revolutionary comrades, could never believe that the miller of that day, who risked his life to assist materially and morally the anti-Japanese guerrillas fighting for the country's liberation, could be a reactionary.

More convinced of his trust in the miller of Jia Zai Shui who had assisted the guerrilla army without hesitation during the arduous period of the anti-Japanese war, he said in a strong voice that even if he had served the enemy, it must have been from 1938 onwards, and told him to make exhaustive inquiry into the case again.

Therefore thanks to his absolute trust in and noble obligation to the revolutionary soldiers, the case of the miller who had been punished as a reactionary was put under inquiry again.

On May 27, Juche 65 (1976), several months later, he got a report from the officials on the inquiry into the miller case made by the judicial organ, which had taken nearly half a year.

So absolute was his trust in the revolutionary comrade even in the face of the fact he could never believe a year ago that the inquiry completely reversed everybody's calculation.

The miller who had been driven out of the era for so long, branded as a reactionary, could make his proud appearance before the era and history as a revolutionary martyr and patriot who selflessly devoted himself to the anti-Japanese guerrilla army, true to President Kim Il Sung.

The thing is, at the beginning of his case in Juche 47 (1958), when the son of a traitor handed in a legal report in order to cover up his dirty color, the wicked guys in the judicial organ encouraged some narrow-minded officials to magnify the case.

Making a fuss as if they had caught a big reactionary, they rejected the miller's statement as an insufficient one, and confirmed the case as a serious one on their own authority, dazzled by the so-called accuracy and credibility of the report.

So the anti-Japanese martyr who devoted his all to the sacred cause of national liberation was wrongly branded as a reactionary in a flash, which was quite abnormal.

After getting a detailed report from the officials, President Kim Il Sung, who had been thinking deeply for a while without saying anything, heartbroken, looked around at the officials after a while and said in a low voice that Ri Si Ryul, the Jia Zai Shui miller in 1938, was a good man who rendered much assistance to the headquarters of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army in arduous and difficult period.

Looking at the self-reproaching officials, he sternly told them to acquit the wrongly-branded Ri Shi Ryul of his "wrongdoing" and solve all the problems concerning his family.

Thanks to his warm trust and noble obligation, Ri Si Ryul could wipe off his disgrace and proudly emerge as an anti-Japanese patriotic martyr in the world.

If it had not been for him, the miller would have been buried forever, but President Kim Il Sung gave prominence to his exploits at every occasion to heal even a bit the misfortune of Ri Si Ryul who had done such a wonderful work in the most difficult period.

In particular in his reminiscence "With the Century", a great encyclopedia of the revolution in which his whole life is summed up, he warmly recalled that the miller was indeed a good man, who joined us in the Arduous March with food on his back, and that he was given much assistance from such grateful people as the miller during the Arduous March.

In short, the Jia Zai Shui miller, who had been driven out of the era and the memory of people for decades, could become the miller and patriotic martyr known to the whole country thanks to the absolute trust and noble obligation of President Kim Il Sung.