"Greeting the Spring in a Foreign Land"

In March every year, Korean people recollect with deep emotion the day of March 1, Juche30(1941) when President Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong Suk had a historic photo taken.

That day, the President saw to it that a meeting should be held to mark the 22nd anniversary of March First Popular Uprising.

All the members of the unit formed up in the sports ground and he, together with Kim Chaek and other commanding officers, mounted on the temporary platform built on a low hill behind the barracks.

The meeting was declared open and the "Red Flag" was sung.

President Kim Il Sung made a speech at the meeting.

Beginning with the words that the 22nd anniversary of March First Popular Uprising made him feel a sense of sorrowful indignation and strong emotion, he said that March First Popular Uprising was not only an explosion of the desire cherished in the hearts of all the Korean compatriots to put an end to the barbarous militarist rule by Japanese imperialists and achieve the independence of Korea but also a bloody resistance to demonstrate the stamina of Korean nation to the world over.

He went on to draw the serious lesson from the Uprising and mentioned that Korean revolutionaries had fought with arms in their hands for over 10 years and acquired the power of ability to bring the long-cherished national desire of liberation into reality.

Concluding the speech, he ardently called upon everyone to take an active part in military drills and small-unit actions strenuously with firm faith in the final victory so as to carry out his or her honorable duty for the times and history, fatherland and the nation.

The meeting was followed by sports and amusement games amid cheers, including 100 and 200 meter races, relay race, knee fight, bowling and football match.

At noon the sky got brighter and clearer.

Choe Hyon and other revolutionary fighters asked the President to have photos taken with them, saying unanimously that they would never see him again when they left him for small unit actions.

Saying that the weather was good for photos, he willingly had photos taken with several commanding officers and other guerrillas in front of a birch tree on which spring tints were emerging.

Reflecting the feelings of all guerrillas, someone suggested to the President that he should have a photo taken with Comrade Kim Jong Suk on the occasion of departing on small unit actions.

Comrade Kim Jong Suk, growing shy, hid herself behind the backs of women guerrillas. They pushed her forward to the President's side. In order not to miss the moment, the cameraman clicked the shutter.

Though announcing their wedding on the way back to the training camp in the late fall of the previous year while suffering from difficulties, they were too busy to find time to have a tete-a-tete.

That day they finally had a photo taken amid the boundless blessings of his revolutionary comrades, which was worth being cherished for their lifetime and handing down through generations.

This is how the historic photo "Greeting the Spring in a Foreign Land" came into being, showing the warm love of the great persons of Mt. Paektu and making all Koreans keep their eyes on it with great impression.

Recalling that day, President Kim Il Sung said.

"For both of us, it was an unforgettable first spring that we greeted after our wedding.

As I wanted to remember that spring forever, I jotted down on the back of the photo: "Greeting the spring in a foreign land, March 1, 1941. At Camp B." ("With the Century" 8(Continuing Edition) page 142)

One day in September, Juche82(1993) when he met an anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter, President Kim Il Sung said with deep emotion that in the spring of 1941 he had a photo taken with Comrade Kim Jong Suk and that night when Kim Chaek and other commanding officers asked him what was the most attraction of her as a by-talk, he answered it was the marksmanship of her who was naive, brave and strong.

The photo which President Kim Il Sung recollected in reminiscence on several occasions was preserved in his house and then displayed at the Korean Revolutionary Museum after liberation.

In July, Juche97(2008), the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il gave a meaningful instruction to senior officials that the photo "Greeting the Spring in a Foreign Land", which was known to the people touching their heartstrings, was originally sent by mother Kim Jong Suk to the Committee of Korean Patriotic Fighters to be displayed at Korean Revolutionary Museum.

In February, Juche98(2009), during the on-the-spot guidance to the preservation of revolutionary relics in Hoeryong city, he said that the photo mother Kim Jong Suk posed for with the President on March 1, 1941 was of great significance.

Listening to the song "February Is Spring", he told senior officials that the song reminded him of the photo posed by President Kim Il Sung and mother Kim Jong Suk in a foreign land during the anti-Japanese armed struggle.

He added that one had to know the spring in a foreign land to understand the spring of February and the latter was inconceivable from the former.

Time has passed, but Korean people are determined to hold the respected General Secretary in high esteem, bearing in mind the noble traits of the great persons of Mt. Paektu from the photo with boundless yearning.