The respected Comrade
"The world knows no such a great revolutionary as our President who, with devotion to the revolution and his people, finished everything he should do by displaying superhuman energy until the last moment of his life when he passed away in his office."
From olden times, it has been said that the subjects work and their king lives in peace.
But in the DPRK there is an opposite saying that the king works and his subjects live in peace. In other words, the leader of the country works more devotedly than anybody else and this leads to a blissful life for all the people across the country.
This saying, reflecting in a concentrated way the careers of the great Leader and the great General, who worked with devotion for their country and fellow people, is associated with the following story.
During the days of the Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953) there was an officer in the Chinese People's Volunteers, who had been active from the days of the Xian Incident. When returning to his country after winding up his work, he said to the great Leader that in other countries the heads of state lived in peace while their people worked but in the DPRK the people were living in peace while their leader was working.
The following story tells how ardent the great Leader's devotion for his people was.
It happened in September Juche 68 (1979), when he was giving on-site guidance over the agricultural sector in the plain areas on the west coast.
After visiting the cooperative farms in South Hwanghae Province including those on Yonbaek Plain near the Military Demarcation Line for several days, he made preparations for presiding over an enlarged session of the plenary meeting of the provincial Party committee.
It was well after the midnight, but his room was still lit.
With the thought of advising him to take a rest even for a few hours, an official went into his room, but oblivious of his entering, the great Leader was still reading a document.
The official stood there for long, and reluctantly made a sign of his presence.
Only then did the great Leader see him, and guessing what he had to say, asked him why he was not sleeping, saying that he should go back and sleep as the night had far advanced.
The official was struck dumb, for he knew that whatever advice he would make in this situation, it would be to no avail.
As he went out of the room, he was reminded of a feedback from a foreign delegation that had visited the DPRK in those days.
It was the impression of one of the delegation members on the great Leader's tireless on-site guidance.
"I was deeply impressed by the fact that President
"Frankly speaking, the leader of my country appears at one or two national events a year and spends the other days in a resort; it is hard even for the government officials to see him.
"We think that the great Leader, in view of the exploits he has performed and of his age, should work while taking due rest."
Hoping that if the great Leader read this, he might change his mind, the official took it into the President's room.
After reading the foreigner's impression, the great Leader said that he did not know how the leader of that country was working, but he couldn't work that way, admonishing the official that though he had worked with him for a long time, he was still wasting the precious time, carrying about such a thing with him. Then, feeling sorry for the admonishment, he told him to feel at ease and go to bed as he had more things to do.
Indeed, the great Leader's life was a continuation of such moments of devoted service for the people.
In the long period after he had embarked on the road of revolution he thought only about the revolution and dedicated himself to his country and people in spite of all the sorrow and agony he experienced.
His ennobling virtue was carried forward by the great General during his revolutionary leadership.
This happened on a day of rest.
The great General, who was going to Wonsan on a vessel after winding up his on-site guidance in the Kosong area, told the officials to moor the vessel at a ferry.
As it was a fine day and as they had wished to have him take a rest on the sandy beach, the officials grew happy. The beach was bathed in warm sunshine.
But to their surprise, the great General sat under a parasol, and was going over documents.
Seeing the officials hesitating, he asked them why they were hanging around, saying that taking a sunbath was a schedule for them that day and that they should not worry about him but enjoy themselves.
Then he read the document without feeling the passage of time.
An old man living nearby saw him, and said that an old saying goes that the king lives in peace while his subjects were working, but now it was an opposite case.
Indeed, the great General's career tells many of such stories.
Once he said to officials: From the days when I was young, I have tried to become a man who works, not who works others; it is probably because of this that I feel happy, rather than worried, whenever I have a lot of work to do; we must cherish the great Leader's instructions that we should not blame only our ancestors who rode on donkeys and wore horse-hair hats, singing of scenic beauties, but take ten or a hundred steps when others are taking one step; in order to carry out his instructions we must all work more diligently; I will live the rest of my life, working diligently for the people as the leader instructed.
In the book, titled, Human Veteran: the great General, Oleg Shenin, former chairman of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, wrote: The life of the great General as a national leader and revolutionary is the life of a son of the people beloved by them, of their servant. It is a steadfast principle of his life to work with devotion for the benefits of the people throughout his life."
The great General's devotion to his country and people was the warmest, loftiest and most ennobling one that had never been witnessed in human history.
The respected Comrade
He made trips on a wooden vessel in early mornings to see the service personnel who were defending the posts on islands. Once in order to acquaint himself with the performance of a new-type trolley bus, he rode it on its trial run along the streets in the capital city at midnight. In order to improve the people's living standards, he visited construction sites even in the hottest periods, paying no regard to the burning sun.
Thanks to the peerlessly great men's ennobling virtue of making tireless efforts when the people enjoy all the benefits, the Korean people are leading a dignified life as the God of the country.
