The Source of President Kim Il Sung's Optimism

For revolutionaries, optimism is an important ideological and spiritual trait, along with ideology, will and moral obligation.

The revolution is so severe and difficult that it cannot be compared with the troubles and difficulties experienced in ordinary life as it is conducted in the face of the fierce confrontation of progress and reaction, innovation and conservatism.

Therefore, only optimists who have made optimism their habit can go along the severe and difficult road of the revolution to the end.

Moreover, the Korean revolution is more arduous, more complicated and more protracted than the one of any country. So in order to accomplish it successfully, it is necessary to have revolutionary optimism which makes sure you overcome all the ordeals and difficulties lying on the road of advance with laughter.

President Kim Il Sung was the supreme personifier of optimism who led the Korean revolution to victory, always with great optimism.

It was May Day in 1940.

The commanding officers and soldiers of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army all gathered around the bonfire talking about the revolution, their parents and brothers and sisters in their home country and the future of victory throughout night.

That day, President Kim Il Sung told the soldiers that they could go up Moran Hill and try Pyongyang noodles and mullet soup after liberation, even though they were eating frog-meat on May Day.

He continued to call upon the excited soldiers to overcome the hardships and difficulties in a brave manner cherishing their invariable revolutionary faith and adhere to the principle of the revolutionaries to the end.

Like this, the president led the Korean revolution with the future of victory in his mind and without any pessimism despite the severe difficulties.

Then what was the source of his optimism?

President Kim Il Sung said:

"Since I set out on the road of the revolution I have believed in the people, shared good times and bad with them and felt the value of life and happiness in that. Nothing is impossible if one relies on the inexhaustible strength of the people and there is nothing that is nobler than devoting oneself to the people. This belief is the source of my optimism."

The source of the president's optimism.

It was the faith that there was no greater value than the belief in the inexhaustible strength of our people and devoting everything to them.

For President Kim Il Sung, people were heaven and powerful beings.

Even though everything in the world has their limits, the strength of the people is absolutely infinite and if only the strength of the people is motivated, there is nothing that cannot be done in the world and you can even beat the sky. This was the precious philosophical principle cherished by the president.

He believed in the strength of the people so much that he created the immortal Juche idea during the early days of the revolution.

It was the idea of respect for and love for the people which powerfully declared that the precious being with the supreme dignity and value in the world is the people and the popular masses are the most wise and powerful driving force of the history.

President Kim Il Sung suffered all the hardships that ordinary people could not even imagine in his life, but he set out on the road of revolution with belief in the strength of the great people and led the most severe and glorious Korean revolution to victory sharing life and death with the people without any pessimism.

In the course of leading the revolutionary struggle and construction work, he would always overcome whatever difficulties and danger with optimism that he would surely win if he had the strength of the people rallied around the leader, rather than worrying or shrinking back.

It was thanks to the faith in the people of President Kim Il Sung and the confidence and optimism of the people who turned out as one with trust in the president that the Korean people could win the all-out resistance against Japanese imperialism so-called "the Leader of the Eastern countries" without the support of the regular armed forces and solid backing, win victory in the grim Fatherland Liberation War unprecedented in history and achieve incredible successes in postwar reconstruction and socialist construction.

That is why the Korean revolution, which is more arduous and complicated than any foreign one, could dynamically advance along the road of socialism, irrespective of the persistent and vicious economic blockade of the imperialists.