Ri Kye San and a Campaign against Illiteracy

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said:

"Comrade Kim Il Sung was a great leader of the people who put forward the masses, once oppressed and exploited, as the masters of history, and raised their dignity and value to the highest level possible."

Among those who had lived under all sorts of maltreatment and contempt before liberation but afterwards became a representative of the people, a master of the country under the warm love and care of President Kim Il Sung, the benevolent father of the Korean people, is Ri Kye San in Kangwon Province.

She worked as a farmhand for a landlord at the age of 16, and what was worse, her husband, who had been relied on as the mainstay of her family, was taken to "Patriotic Corps" in 1942 and died.

When the country was liberated, the same portion of farmland as the menfolks was distributed to her thanks to the solicitude of President Kim Il Sung.

In Juche 36(1947), she did good spring farming and came to Pyongyang with one mal(4.765 gallons) of the largest potatoes and two mals of the best wheat with her simple thankful mind for the benevolence of the fatherly leader President Kim Il Sung.

President Kim Il Sung warmly welcomed her and kindly asked her about her visit.

She said with tears that she came over with her own wheat and potatoes harvested in the land given by him and she would be grateful if he accepted them. And she continued that she came to have her own land and do farming, living a worthwhile life, thanks to President Kim Il Sung though she had lived a slave's life a few years ago.

He inquired about that year's farming and farmers' living, and asked her whether she studied anything and what newspaper she read.

Looking at her, who felt ashamed of her illiteracy because she had lived in the lost country, he said that it was not too late for her to learn and that if she was literate she could find herself worthy and contribute to the affairs of the state.

She answered that she would certainly learn as he said. President Kim Il Sung asked if she could eradicate her illiteracy 3 months from then on and write him her own letter to tell the news.

She told him that she would do so. He was very pleased and gave her great encouragement saying that he believed that she would do good farming as well as study hard.

When she returned to the village, she read the letters she had learned in her spare time during the day. She even covered her book with oilpaper to read on the rainy days while working in the field, to keep the promise made to President Kim Il Sung.

She studied hard while doing cooking in the kitchen, too. She wrote 《독》(vat) on a vat, 《솥》(pot) on a pot cover to familiarize them.

It was late October Juche 36(1947), three months since she had promised before the fatherly leader.

She spent several nights writing and rewriting to finish a letter to him. It read "Dear General Kim Il Sung! It was only today I managed to send a letter to you.

True to the instruction of the General to write a letter in three months, I have studied hard day and night.

Now I can even read some newspapers.

General! I find more and more pleasure in my life day by day.

I had a good harvest of rice, foxtail millet, beans and red beans in the paddy and dry fields given by the General.

General! I feel my life worthwhile as living is getting better and I am learning to read and write.

In the future, too, I will learn more and work more true to your instructions."

He received her letter and wrote a reply to her. It said that he was pleased that she had eradicated her illiteracy in three months and written to him telling the news and that he hoped that she would work and study more and more to make new successes.

Afterwards, in order to repay the great trust and deep love of the President, she worked with all her strength and wisdom during the building period of a new country, as well as in the Fatherland Liberation War, when the whole country was in flames, and during post-war organization of the agricultural cooperatives. Afterwards she even became a deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly and the management board chairperson of a cooperative farm(then) thanks to the warm care of President Kim Il Sung.

Indeed, President Kim Il Sung is the boundlessly benevolent father of the Korean people, who raised their dignity and value to the highest level possible.